LIBRARY 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

SANTA  BARBARA 

PRESENTED  BY 

ROBERT  L.  CASHMAN 


THE   HOLY  SPIRIT 

\^^ 

AND 

THE   PRAYER   BOOK 


THE  TRINITY  SEASON 

BEING  VIEWED  AS  A  LONG 

WHITSUNTIDE 


BY 

JAMES  HAUGHTON,  A.M. 


WITH  A  FOREWORD 
BY 

THE  BISHOP  OF  ALBANY 


PHILADELPHIA 

THE  JOHN  C.  WINSTON  COMPANY 
1911 


COPYRIGHT.  1911 
BY  JAMES  HAUGHTON 

All  rights  reserved 
Published  October.  1911 


TO    THOSE 

CHILDREN  OF  THE  CHURCH, 

BTILL    IN    THIS    LIFE,    OH    ALIVE    IN    CHRIST    FOR    EVERMORE, 
WHO    WERE    MY 

PARISHIONERS  AND  FRIENDS 

IN   A 

PERIOD    OF    FORTY-THREE    YEARS, 

IN    THE    DIOCESES    OF 
NEW   HAMPSHIRE,   ALBANY,    NEW  YORK 

AND 
PENNSYLVANIA, 

THIS    BOOK 
IS    AFFECTIONATELY    INSCRIBED 


FOREWORD 

I  have  a  sense  of  safety  in  recom- 
mending this  book  for  two  reasons: 
First,  because  of  the  subject  with 
which  it  deals,  and  because  of  what 
I  know  in  outline  of  the  method  of 
the  deal,  and  still  more  because  I 
know  the  writer.  The  subject  is  cer- 
tainly one  of  large  and  deep  impor- 
tance, and  it  concerns  every  one  of 
us,  in  the  very  most  essential  and 
fundamental  parts  and  phases  of  our 
Christian  life. 

W.  C.  DOANE. 


Bishop's  House,  Albany 
Lent,  1911 


The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  love  of  God,  and 
the  communion  of  the  Holy  Ghost  be  with  you  all. — 2  Cor. 
13: 14. 

The  love  of  the  three  Persons  formed  the  covenant  of  grace 
from  everlasting,  in  which  they  were  equally  and  individually 
concerned.  It  is  an  error  to  suppose  that  we  ara  indebted  to 
one  more  than  another  of  the  divine  Persons;  for  their  love  is 
but  one  and  the  same  love,  as  their  essential  nature  is  one  and 
the  same. — Ambrose  Serle. 


(vi) 


PREFACE 

Great  themes  call  for  great  writers;  call  the  louder 
if  they  are  in  any  sense  new;  and  it  is  certain  that 
the  present  work  would  not  have  been  taken  in 
hand,  had  not  such  a  work  long  appeared  to  me  most 
desirable,  while  no  writer  was  forthcoming  to  satisfy 
the  desire.  It  is  hoped  that,  hi  making  the  attempt, 
it  has  not  been  a  fault  to  imagine  an  "audience"  of 
very  different  ages  and  classes.  As  the  Bishop  of 
Albany  has  said  in  his  necessarily  brief,  but  very  kind, 
Foreword,  "the  subject  dealt  with  concerns  every  one 
of  us."  Somehow,  and  to  my  great  pleasure,  the 
privilege  enjoyed,  not  many  years  since,  of  coming  in 
weekly  contact  with  the  students  of  t^^hjladelp^hia^ 
Divinity  School,  has  in  this  book  seemed  to  repeat 
itself.  Then*  faces  and  voices  have  often  come  to  me; 
but  with  them  have  appeared  other  seminarians, 
and  some  of  the  younger  clergy.  Sunday  School 
and  Bible  Class  teachers,  a  layman,  a  thoughtful  child, 
would  "drop  in"  and  listen  for  a  while;  and  it  was  for 
the  subject's  sake.  The  Prayer  Book  concerned 
"every  one." 

So  ran  my  dream,  and  the  point  of  chief  interest 
was  the  Trinity  Season  regarded  as  a  long  Pentecost. 
Careful  readers  of  the  Bible,  seminarians,  deacons, 
priests,  and  bishops,  may  find  little  that  is  new  to 
them  in  the  first  Chapter.  Chapter  II, — on  the  Prayer 
Book  and  the  Christian  Year, — offers  little  that  is 

(vii) 


viii  PREFACE 

not  familiar  to  many.  Chapter  III  contains  a  question, 
and  the  attempted  answer  to  it,  to  which  thoughtful 
attention  is  invited.  It  is  in  Chapter  IV  that  the  main 
thought  of  this  book  is  developed;  and  the  remaining 
portions  are  substantially  the  expansion  and  the 
application  of  it. 

The  question  which  suggests  itself  in  connection 
with  that  chapter  and  to  which  "every  one"  is  most 
urgently  invited  to  give  serious  consideration,  is  not 
whether  or  no  we  are  all  making  enough  in  the  Amer- 
ican Church  to-day, — indeed  in  the  Anglican  Church 
as  a  whole, — of  that_study  of  the  Person  and  AVork  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  which  Dr.  Arthur  Cleveland  Downer 
says  has  been  "strangely  neglected  by  the  Church 
throughout  her  history," — making  enough'  of  the 
Blessed  Spirit's  part  in  the  entire  work  of  redemption 
from  the  moment  of  sin's  entrance  into  the  world  on 
till  the  Second  Advent  of  our  Lord;  of  His  essential 
and  vital  relation  to  the  life  of  the  individual  Christian 
and  the  Church's  life,  to  the  unity  of  the  Church, 
and  its  extension  to  the  uttermost  part  of  the  earth. 
We  shall  all  as  one  man  reply,  We  are  not:  we  speak, 
and  especially  think  and  act, — at  least  the  greater 
number  do, — as  though  we  had  scarcely  heard  whether 
there  be  a  Holy  Ghost.  If  we  do  believe,  and  at  times 
reflect  upon,  the  first  words  of  the  third  section  of  the 
Nicene  Creed, — think  of  the  Third  Person  as  a  person, 
and  the  Lord,  and  Giver  of  all  life,  and  worship  and 
glorify  Him  as  we  worship  the  Father  and  our  Blessed 
Saviour  Himself, — in  what  practical  relationship  to 
ourselves  and  to  the  Church  corporately  do  we  con- 
template Him,  and  for  what  cause  worship  and  glorify 
Him? 


PREFACE  ix 

For  example;  we  read  in  Romans  5  :  5,  that  "Hope 
maketh  not  ashamed  because  the  love  of  God  is  shed 
abroad  in  our  hearts  by  the  Holy  Ghost  which  is  given 
unto  us";  believe  the  assertion,  in  Gal.  5  :  22,  that 
"The  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  love";  but  what  of  the 
Spirit's  own  love  for  us?  Do  we  ever  pray  in  the 
feeling  of  a  prayer  quoted  by  G.  F.  Holden  from  the 
Short  Office  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  "Blessed  Spirit,  shed 
Thy  purest  light  within  us,  delighting  us  with  Thy 
love"?  More  than  a  century  ago  an  English  devo- 
tional writer,  Ambrose  Serle,  expressed  himself  thus: 

"If  God  be  love,  then  the  Spirit  is  love,  because  the  Spirit 
is  God.  He,  as  one  of  the  parties  in  the  everlasting  covenant, 
loveth  His  people  with  an  everlasting  love.  By  Him  also  they 
are  made  sensible  of  the  love  of  the  Father  and  of  the  Son,  when 
He  sheddeth  forth  His  own  love  upon  their  hearts.  Without 
the  love  of  the  Spirit,  they  could  not  know,  so  they  could  not 
come  up  to,  the  love  of  the  whole  Trinity;  for  by  Him  alone 
it  is  shed  abundantly  upon  all  that  are  His,  both  in  earth  and 
heaven." 

It  is  not  often  that  Christians  so  speak  in  these  days 
of  the  love  of  the  Spirit  for  their  souls.  No,  the  ques- 
tion to  which  consideration  is  asked  is,  whether  by 
regarding  the  entire  second  half  of  Christ's  Year  as 
intended, — and  that  by  the  Holy  Spirit  Himself, — to 
keep  His,  the  divine  Spirit's  immanence  and  omnipo- 
tence and  love  in  their  various  aspects  before  the 
mind  of  Christendom  throughout  that  long  period, — 
by  preaching  and  teaching  and  singing  of  the  love  of 
the  Spirit  and  His  manifold  life-giving  and  life-saving 
operations, — we  shall  not  immensely  forward  His 
work,  and  so  hasten  the  coming  of  the  day  of  God. 

This  volume  contains  many  citations; — some   will 


x  PREFACE 

say, a  little  multitude  of  them;  and  may  ask  the  reason 
why.  These  three  reasons  I  think  will  justify  them. 
A  large  number  of  them  give  needed  support  to  argu- 
ments and  conclusions  which  being  new  may  there- 
fore appear  doubtful.  Again,  the  old  fundamental 
truths,  transcendent  and  glorious,  have  found  hi  these 
passages  from  well-known  writers  clear,  accurate, 
and  sometimes  beautiful,  expression.  Finally,  to 
say  nothing  of  Sunday  School  teachers  and  other  lay- 
people,  many  clergymen,  beside  being  long  and  hard 
workers,  with  little  time  for  books,  own  small  libraries, 
and  have  not  easy  access  to  the  large  ones;  and  it  is 
hoped  that  such  will  welcome  the  quotations.  I  am 
convinced  that  this  book  is  much  stronger  and  richer 
for  having  them;  and  am  personally  grateful  to  the 
many  authors  at  whose  door  I  have  knocked. 

In  strong  sympathy  for  Thackeray's  wittily  expressed 
predilection  for  the  letter  7  as  being  the  straight  line 
which  was  the  shortest  distance  between  his  own  mind 
and  heart  and  those  of  his  readers,  sharing  his  dislike 
for  the  conventional  third-person-manner  of  expression 
among  authors,  I  have  reserved  the  privilege  of  using 
the  first-person  form,  by  occasion  and  as  seldom  as  con- 
veniently possible. 

What  now  shall  by  way  of  grateful  acknowledgment 
be  said  of  the  kind  people  who  have  shown  interest 
in  this  work;  by  a  quick  look  of  interest  when  its  sub- 
ject was  named,  or  by  words  of  encouragement;  through 
actual  assistance,  by  books  lent  or  named,  manuscript 
listened  to  or  read ;  by  helpful  criticism  and  counsel,  and 
last  but  not  least  by  intercessory  prayer?  It  would  be  a 
pleasure  to  name  them  all :  many  in  fact  are  included 
in  the  Dedication.  Some  should  be  named;  Professor 


PREFACE  xi 

Robinson  of  the  Philadelphia  Divinity  SchoQl,and  Dean 
Groton;  my  long-time  friend,  once  a  parishioner, 
the  Bishop  of  Bethlehem;  the  Bishop-Coadjutor 
elect  of  Pennsylvania;  the  Rector  of  St.  Timothy's 
Church,  Roxborough;  Bishop  Lloyd,  and  the  Rector 
of  Trinity  Church,  New  York;  my  son,  the  Rector 
of  Exeter,  and  the  Bishop  and  Bishop-Coadjutor  of 
New  Hampshire;  my  always  courteous  successor  in 
Bryn  Mawr  and  my  good  Rector  in  Paoli,  giving 
or  lending  books,  and  often  asking,  How  goes  the 
work?  the  author  of  the  Consecration  of  the  Eucharist, 
Dr.  Gummey;  Walther  Koenig,  Ph.D.,  of  the  Library 
of  Congress;  and  finally  Mr.  Charles  H.  Clarke,  of 
The  John  C.  Winston  Company,  to  whom  I  am  in 
many  ways  greatly  indebted.  With  him,  as  with  all 
the  others,  the  loadstar  and  inspiration  has,  I  am  sure, 
been  the  Subject  itself.  If  this  book  be  judged  "any 
good,"  and  "worth  while,"  to  these  good  people 
under  God  be  awarded  a  large  part  of  the  credit. 

J.  H. 

BROOKSIDE  FARM 
CHESTER  VALLEY,  PAOL^JPA. 
ST.  LUKE,  EVANGELIST 
1911 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I 
THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 

PAGE 

Doctrine  of  His  divine  Personality  neglected. — Its  im- 
portance.— Witness  of  the  Old  Testament. — Witness  of 
the  Gospels;  of  Acts,  Epistles,  and  Apocalypse;  of  the 
early  Church,  including  testimony  of  the  Prayer  Book. 
— Conclusion;  results  of  deficient  attention;  hopeful 
signs;  life  for  man  spiritual 1-33 

CHAPTER  II 
THE  PRATER  BOOK  AND  CHRISTIAN  YEAR 

Earlier  history:  Garrison,  Dowden,  Hart;  The  Sacra- 
men  taries. — Latin  Church  then  comparatively  pure. — 
Reformation  Period. — The  Christian  Year;  Coxe. — 
Creation;  the  Sabbath. — Three  Jewish  Feasts;  God 
the  Life  of  Men;  Bread,  Wine,  Slain  Lambs,  Songs  of 
Pilgrims.  Relation  of  these  to  Christ's  life,  teaching, 
and  death 37-62 

CHAPTER  III 
THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  AND  THE  PRAYER  BOOK 

Summary  of  preceding  chapters. — What  now  is  the 
Spirit's  relationship  to  the  Book? — Precedent  and 
analogy:  Old  Testament  Scriptures  included  Lyric 
and  Prayers. — A  Spirit  of  Order,  Universality,  Truth, 
Life,  Growth. — The  young  Christ  and  the  young 
Church  — Spirit  had  come  to  stay,  to  guide,  to  pray  in 
us,  and  teach,  not  least  by  means  of  liturgies. — Spirit 
of  Wisdom  and  Beauty. — What  our  conclusion  should  be.  65-83 

(xiii) 


xiv  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  IV 

THE  TRINITY  SEASON 

FAQB 

History  of  the  name;  Blunt,  Procter  and  Frere. — 
Whitsunday  more  than  a  truth,  an  Event. — Hart,  Coxe, 
Downer. — Wide  aspects  of  Spirit's  work  as  Christ's 
Vice-gerent,  in  the  Sunday  Epistles  after  Trinity. — 
Doane  and  Ewer  on  Whitsunday. — "Signs"  of  Spirit's 
Epiphany. — Reichel. — Examination  of  Epistles. — Trin- 
ity Sunday.; — First,  Second,  Third  and  Fourth  Sun- 
days after  Trinity. — Groups  of  Epistles. — Persecutions, 
Peace  of  the  Church.  —  Godet  on  the  two  Sacra- 
ments.— I  and  II  Corinthians,  Grace  of  Orders. — Im- 
portance of  Romans  and  Ephesians  in  this,  the 
Spirit's  Season. — Grieving  the  Spirit;  Gore;  Webb. — 
Lessons  from  the  Acts  on  the  first  ten  Sundays;  turning 
points  in  Spirit's  first  Missionary  Campaign. — Results 
of  our  investigation,  and  conclusion;  Wordsworth's 
Ode  to  Duty 87-118 


THE  TRINITY  SEASON — CONTINUED 

What  is  further  to  be  concluded?  The  principle  in  "  No 
man  can  say  that  Jesus  is  the  Lord  but  by  the  Holy 
Ghost"  applied  widely;  to  the  Christmas  and  Epiphany 
truths;  to  God's  Fatherhood,  and  Christ's  Sonship;  to 
the  Trinity;  Mason;  to  the  Atonement,  Sense  of  sin, 
self-knowledge,  the  Intermediate  State;  to  the  Family. 
The  Spirit  the  Fount  of  Unity. — Communion  of  Saints 
here. — Liddon  on  daily  use  of  Veni  Creator. — Remainder 
of  book  given  up  to  themes  suggested  as  appropriate 
to  the  long  Whitsuntide 118-133 

MISSIONS:  light  shines  because  it  is  light. — Why  the 
Spirit  was  given;  Trumbull. — Spirit's  method  in 
missions. — Mott  on  present  "ferment." — Christ  a 
universal  Saviour. — Dean  Church  on  peculiar  obliga- 
tion of  Anglican  Christians. — Our  racial  genius. — 
Vision  of  seven  mission  ary  bishops ;  Adventure  f  or  G  od .  133-1 50 


CONTENTS  xv 

PAGE 

ANTE-NATAL  LIFE:  Christ  lightening  every  man;  Sea- 
bury,  Otey,  Craik  on  Divine  Life,  Horwill  on  universal 
preparatio  evangelica,  Testimony  of  missionaries;  Fox, 
Barclay. — Truth  applied  to  Pelagian  controversy; 
Multitudes  around  us  alive,  but  not  yet  "born,"  in 
Christ 150-158 

THE  CHURCH  AND  PREDESTINATION:  Acts,  Romans, 
and  Ephesians,  in  Trinity  Season;  The  "apostle  of  catho- 
licity"; Making  "all  men  see"  it. — The  catholic  and 
genuine  doctrine  of  election;  Gore  on  the  "false  turn 
given  to  it";  The  eternal  divine  purpose  a  chain  of 
gold  for  Christ's  Bride.— The  Spirit's  "pipes  of  oil".  .  158-171 

CHRISTIAN  NURTURE:  promise  of  the  Spirit  for  the 
"children." — The  farmer  and  his  wife.  Secret  and 
gradual  development  of  the  Christ-life;  Keble,  Luther, 
Bushnell,  Craik.— Flowers;  "Seasoned  timber".  .  .  .  171-179 

CHRISTIANITY  A  CATHOLIC  RELIGION:  a  noble  word  in 
itself  and  standing  for  the  Church's  wide  extension  and 
its  apostolic  Faith,  "catholic"  demands  to  be  reclaimed 
from  false  associations.  A  Ladies'  Historical  Club. — 
Salmon;  Mason;  The  Decree  of  Chalcedon;  Fulton. — 
The  Prayer  Book  true  to  the  Faith  without  "additions," 
Roman  or  Protestant. — Things  necessary  to  be  believed; 
Christ's  "little  ones";  To  impose  additional  terms  of 
communion  "a  high  crime  and  misdemeanor";  Terrible 
results  of  the  error,  to  Rome  and  Christendom  generally. 
Percy  Dearmer  quoted. — Bishop  Webb  on  the  Anglican 
Principle  a  cure  for  "restlessness." — Pure  dogma. — New 
England  orthodoxy;  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes. — Roman 
"inventions,"  and  Protestant,  alike  harmful;  Smyth. — 
The  Spirit  saying,  Come,  and  the  Bride  saying,  Wait. — 
The  country  parson's  problem;  De  Pressense". — Catho- 
licity of  the  Anglican  Church;  Witness  of  etymology; 
Littell  on  the  Historians. — Give  us  the  Christianity  of 
Christ. — Much  teaching  needed  in  connection  with 
changing  the  Church's  name 179-212 

THE  HOLY  MINISTRY:  a  clearly  marked  subject  for  the 
Spirit's  season. — The  whole  Church  apostolic,  but.  or- 


xvi  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

dination  carries  with  it  intensified  powers  of  priesthood; 
Mason. — The  three-ordered  ministry  a  development 
under  the  Creator-Spirit. — Attitude  of  Calvin,  Luther, 
Zwingli,  and  Wesley  to  the  Historic  Episcopate; 
Palmer. — Perpetuity  of  the  gift  of  Pentecost ;  Downer. — 
In  what  important  sense  the  ministry  is  derived  from 
the  people 212-218 

PRATER,  WORD,  AND  SACRAMENT:  all  are  means  of 
grace. — Bishop  Ingram  on  sacraments  as  the  kiss  of 
God;  Love's  "feeling  disputation"  not  enough  till  we 
have  "learned  the  language"  of  God. — Man's  return  of 
God's  embrace. — Our  enemy's  device  of  separating 
means  which  God  has  joined  together 218-224 

THE  HOLY  COMMUNION:  an  evidence,  with  Sunday,  of 
the  truth  of  Christianity. — Connection  with  the 
Passover. — Creator-Spirit's  relation  to  it  as  a  spiritual 
gift  imparted  through  material  means;  Gore,  Goethe, 
Godet,  John  Duncan,  Odenheimer. — Invocation  of 
Spirit  in  Scottish,  and  American,  churches;  Seabury, 
John  Williams,  Gummey. — Communion  in  the  "one 
loaf";  Serapion,  Cyprian. — Christ's  Humanity  the 
Bread,  and  the  co-operating  Spirit  the  Bread-maker 
for  the  world 224-235 

FATHERHOOD  DIVINE  AND  HUMAN:  the  former  a  truth 
long  neglected,  now  espoused  again:  Speer:  Prayer 
Book  true  to  it. — The  Son  glorifies  the  Father. — The 
earthly  fatherhood  a  figure  of  the  heavenly.  Authority 
glorified;  the  divine  Fatherhood  thereby  exalted. — 
Boys  need  to  reverence  their  fathers;  also  to  be  much 
with  them;  Collier  on  English  boys. — Poets  required  to 
sing  of  fatherhood,  as  many  have  sung  of  motherhood .  235-245 

THE  SPIRIT  AND  CHRISTIAN  WOMANHOOD:  Holy  marriage 
"the  Lord's  doing,  and  marvellous  in  our  eyes."  The 
many  children  not  born  of  the  flesh. — The  more  home- 
life  is  elevated  and  revered,  the  more  clearly  womanhood 
will  appear  typical  of  the  Third  Person.  Subordination 
not  in  conflict  with  equality  of  essence 245-251 


CONTENTS  xvii 

PAGE 

SEED,  FRUIT,  GRACE,  THE  NEW  HUMANITY:  "Thy 
seed  which  is  Christ:"  Lightfoot  on  the  Humanity. 
Trinity  a  seed-sowing  season  in  nature.  The  Spirit  the 
divine  Sower. — Identity  between  Christ  as  Seed  and  as 
Grace  in  Galatians. — Suggestiveness  of  the  word  wait. 
What  is  meant  by  falling  away  from  grace 251-258 

CONFESSION  AND  ABSOLUTION:  Gift  of  the  Spirit  and 
power  to  remit  sin  imparted  in  one  breath.  The 
Church's  corporate  possession  and  responsibility. — 
Solemn  reality  of  the  General  Confession  and  Absolution 
as  viewed  by  this  Church.  Need  of  preaching  on  it  as 
an  earthly-heavenly  transaction,  and  of  invoking  the 
Spirit  upon  the  preparatory  self-examination. — "Things 
left  undone  which  we  ought  to  have  done."  The  one 
talent.  Dr.  Johnson  on  his  friend  Levett 258-263 

CHRISTIAN  ENTHUSIASM  AND  Music:  a  painting  with 
many  figures  in  Ephesians  (20th  Sunday  after  Trinity). 
Enthusiasm  and  joy  hi  Pentecostal  Church. — Vital 
relation  of  sacred  music  to  the  Spirit-life;  Reichel. 
Haydn  in  Vienna  Church.  What  Christianity  has  done 
for  music.  Remark  of  a  Japanese  student. — What 
music  has  done  for  Christianity. — Whitsuntide  Hymns, 
which  are  mostly  prayers,  might  be  more  generally  used  263-273 

THE  SPIRIT  AND  THE  LORD'S  DAY:  Bishop  Whitaker  on 
the  Sunday  question. — Nebuchadnezzar's  image. — 
Sabbath  and  Lord's  Day  both  of  the  self-same  Spirit, 
but  the  former  to  the  latter  as  the  seed  to  the  plant. — 
The  Day  of  Light  (First  day)  Hymn  26.— Nailed  to 
Christ's  cross,  the  Sabbath  died,  and  was  buried,  with 
Him,  but  rose  again  "changed"  by  the  Spirit;  its  law 
the  "royal  law"  of  love  and  liberty. — George  Herbert's 
figure  of  Samson  and  the  "doors" 273-279 

REVERENCE  AND  GODLY  FEAR:  Glorious  titles  given  to 
our  Redeemer  after  Pentecost,  "Jesus"  used  alone  being 
connected  with  His  self-humiliation.  The  Prayer  Book 
throughout  glorifies  Him,  never  leaning  to  terms  of 
"fondling  affection  inconsistent  with  true  reverence"; 
R.  W.  Dale 279-283 


xviii  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

CHRISTIAN  SOCIAL  ETHICS:  the  Pentecostal  miracle  of 
universal  fellowship  in  the  Holy  Ghost. — "Things  which 
belong  on  the  ground  floor";  Ely,  Uhlhorn,  Peile, 
Whittier. — Our  best  methods  of  presenting  the  profound 
revolution  in  human  thought  and  feeling  needed  before 
Society  can  be  brought  into  accord  with  Christian 
principles 284-292 

OUT  OP  Doon  SPIRIT-TRUTHS:  Christ's  outdoor  life  and 
teaching;  Pentecost;  St.  Paul  on  Mars'  Hill.  Outdoor 
life  in  the  Trinity  Season;  subjects  appropriate;  Psalm 
19;  the  Ellipse  and  the  golden  rule;  the  Angels.  .  .  .  292-299 

CHURCH  ARCHITECTURE  :  origin  of  it  religious,  and  that 
of  the  pointed  arch  distinctly  Christian. — Bryant's 
Forest  Hymn;  Whittier. — Structure  of  ^ur  churches 
when  "churchly"  a  lesson  of  Incarnation  and  Atone- 
ment. Christ  the  Way  through  the  vail  into  the 
Father's  presence 299-302 

THE  TRANSFIGURATION:  typical  of  our  glorified 
humanity  hi  Christ:  Hymn  167,  Gregory,  Leo,  Greek 
service-books,  Book  of  Wisdom;  St.  Paul,  St.  Peter; 
Thomas  Case. — The  leaf  and  the  flower. — A  glorified 
human  society  and  brotherhood.  The  Spirit's  relation 
to  the  "change" 302-308 

GREGORY  AND  THE  LATIN  CHURCH:  our  indebtedness  to 
Leo,  Gelasius,  and  especially  Gregory.  Greatness 
thrust  upon  the  Latin  Church,  and  upon  him:  Hore, 
Milman,  Gibbon,  Church,  Robertson,  Goulbum. 
Gregory  and  the  Latin  Church  saved  Western  Christi- 
anity; saved  ancient  British  Church. — His  devotion  to 
the  Holy  Spirit. — Brierley  on  Religious  Biography. — 
Dean  Church  on  Influence  of  Christianity  upon 
National  Character.  Guizot.  Witness  of  Etymology. 
Spiritual  decadence  of  the  Lathi  Church;  Robertson. 
Jesuitism. — The  other  side.  Evidences  of  spirituality. 
Missionary  zeal. — Election  of  ancient  Israel  and  that  of 
Latin  Church  compared;  both  loved  of  God  "for  the 
fathers'  sakes"?  Conversion  of  both  to  be  prayed  for  aa 


CONTENTS 


"life  from  the  dead"  for  mankind,  in  the  Spirit;  Dr. 
Max  Green. — Power,  and  necessity  of,  prayer.  God's 
final  victory,  even  though  "our  wills  are  ours".  .  .  .  308-329 

CONCLUSION:  Spirit-Truth  should  be  fti  every  heart,  on 
every  tongue. — Using  means,  as  Christ  did,  while  in- 
voking His  co-operation,  we  should  achieve  those 
"  greater  works "  belonging  hi  the  Pentecostal  era. — 
Mountain-moving.  Church  Unity.  Conversion  of  the 
world.  Our  vision  a  reality. — Effect  of  Whitsuntide 
thus  observed  upon  Advent,  Epiphany  and  Lent .  .  .  32^-334 


THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 


Come,  Holy  Ghost,  our  souls  inspire, 
And  lighten  with  celestial  fire. 
Thou  the  anointing  Spirit  art, 
Who  dost  thy  sevenfold  gifts  impart. 
Thy  blessed  unction  from  above 
Is  comfort,  life,  and  fire  of  love. 
Enable  with  perpetual  light 
The  dulness  of  our  blinded  sight. 
Anoint  and  cheer  our  soiled  face 
With  the  abundance  of  thy  grace. 
Keep  far  our  foes,  give  peace  at  home; 
Where  thou  art  guide,  no  ill  can  come. 
Teach  us  to  know  the  Father,  Son, 
And  thee,  of  both,  to  be  but  One; 
That  through  the  ages  all  along 
This  may  be  our  endless  song: 
Praise  to  thine  eternal  merit, 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit. 

And  I  believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Lord  and  Giver  of  Life, 
Who  proceedeth  from  the  Father  and  the  Son;  Who  with  the 
Father  and  the  Son  together  is  worshipped  and  glorified.— j 
Nicene  Creed.)  i*-^*?  s*.^+-$~*  ^M  ffi_*>  pro-iMCa**  •  * 

The  Holy  Ghost  is  the  very  essential  unity,  love,  and  love-knot 
of  the  two  persons,  the  Father  and  the  Son;  even  of  God  with 
God.  And  He  is  sent  to  be  the  union,  love,  and  love-knot  of 
the  two  natures  united  in  Christ,  even  of  God  with  man. — 
Bishop  Andrewes. 

Piece  out  our  imperfections  with  your  thoughts. — Shakespeare. 


(2) 


CHAPTER  I 
THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 

A  preliminary  chapter  upon  the  doctrine  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  would  seem  to  be  called  for,  were  it  only  by 
reason  of  the  acknowledged  fact  that  this  cardinal 
article  of  the  Christian  faith  has  been  much  neglected 
in  the  theology  of  our  time.  To  me  it  appears  that  the 
absence  of  any  treatise  upon  the  subject  I  have  chosen 
is  but  one  illustration  of  the  same  general  neglect  of  a 
truth  expressly  declared  in  the  Creeds  of  the  Church 
Universal. 

Bishop  Welldon,  whose  volume  on  the  Revelation  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  published  in  1902,  is  one  of  three  recent 
treatises  on  the  Spirit  to  which  the  Church  is  greatly 
indebted,  wrote  (page  3) : 

"May  it  be  permitted  to  me  to  affirm  my  own  belief,  that  no 
doctrine, — apart  from  the  Incarnation  itself, — is  such  a  solace  and 
strength  to  Christian  hearts  in  the  present  difficult  days  as  the 
Personality  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  *  *  *  In  spite  of  its  historical 
interest  this  truth  has  not  been  realized  in  its  full  practical 
Importance.  It  has  not  been  uniformly  felt  as  a  living  influence 
upon  all  that  Christians  believe,  and  all  that  they  do.  How  few 
churches,  for  example,  have  been  dedicated  to  the  Holy  Spirit! 
How  scanty  is  the  contribution  which  sacred  art  or  music  or 
literature  has  made  in  the  Christian  centuries  to  the  thought  of 
that  Spirit  as  informing  and  inspiring  the  Church  of  Christ! 
Yet  an  oblivion  of  the  Holy  Spirit  characterizes  the  dark  hours 
in  the  religious  life  of  a  Church  or  of  an  individual  soul. 

(3) 


4  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 

"  If  the  New  Testament  '13  the  standard  of  value  or  importance 
as  between  the  various  doctrines  of  the  Christian  Creed,  then  the 
doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit  necessarily  claims  little  less  than  a 
primacy  of  importance  in  the  devout  and  reverent  thought  of  the 
Christian  world.  It  is  there  more  prominent  than  the  doctrine 
of  the  Church.  In  the  Epistles  as  in  the  Gospels  long  passages 
turn  upon  the  gift  of  the  Spirit.  The  promise  of  the  Spirit,  Hia 
nature,  His  functions,  His  descent  at  Pentecost,  His  subsequent 
operation,  His  relation  to  the  human  spirit,  His  testimony,  His 
influence,  and  the  graces  and  virtues  of  which  He  is  the  author 
are  subjects  constantly  present  to  the  Christians  of  the  New 
Testament,  and  strangely  forgotten  by  Christians  in  the  later 
history  of  the  Church. 

"It  is  more  prominent  in  the  New  Testament  than  the  Holy 
Communion.  Even  when  such  passages  as  occur  in  the  sixth 
and  fifteenth  chapters  of  St.  John's  Gospel  are  taken  in  due  refer- 
ence to  the  mystical  doctrine  of  the  Eucharist,  it  remains  true 
that  the  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Communion  does  not  occupy  so 
large  a  space  as  that  of  the  Spirit  in  the  pages  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment. To  emphasize  the  former  and  neglect  the  latter  is  to 
Violate  the  'proportion  of  faith'  in  the  New  Testament." 


What  may  be  termed  the  economy  of  divine  revelation 
has  consisted  in  a  gradual  making  known  to  man  of 
divine  secrets  which  concerned  him.  Truths  were 
unveiled  historically,  by  events,  rather  than  in  sys- 
tematic and  ordered  instruction,  and  when  believers 
in  God  were  "able  to  bear  them."  No  deep  spiritual 
truth, — no  "mystery," — was  "shown"  until  the  occa- 
sion for  it  had  come,  and  until  there  were  disciples 
— learners — to  whom  it  was  possible  and  right  to  say: 
"Unto  you  it  is  given  to  know  the  mysteries  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God." 

The  greatest  and  most  winning  practical  truth  of 
Scripture,  the  Fatherhood  of  God,  was  rather  latent 


IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  5 

than  patent  in  the  Old  Testament.  In  Christ  as  God's 
only-begotten  Son,  and  in  His  filial  character  and  life 
and  teaching  as  being  that  Son,  the  divine  Fatherhood 
was  "brought  to  light."  The  same  is  true  of  the  Son  as 
a  universal  Saviour  and  King.  The  Old  Testament 
Messianic  passages  glowed  with  a  light  of  their  own, 
but  now  they  shine  yet  more  brightly,  lighted  up  as 
they  are  by  Christ's  Advent  and  the  wonderful  history 
that  followed, — by  the  revelations  concerning  Him  in 
the  Gospels,  and  most  of  all  by  the  writings  of  Apostles 
and  Prophets  inspired  by  the  Holy  Ghost. 

Reflection  on  these  things  prepares  us  to  expect  the 
same  gradual  unfolding  of  the  truth  about  the  Third 
Person  in  the  Godhead,  of  which  Bishop  Welldcn  said, 
"there  is  a  sense  in  which  it  overshadows  the  whole 
Bible;  nowhere  is  it  absent  from  the  sacred  writers' 
minds."  We  do  not  expect  to  find  the  secret  told  out 
plainly,  in  the  ancient  Scriptures.  It  was  a  revelation 
Israel  could  not  "bear."  Surrounded  by  nations  who 
worshipped  "gods  many  and  lords  many,"  the  great 
matter  was  to  teach  them  the  Unity:  "The  Lord  our 
God  is  one  Lord"  (Deut.  6:4). 

Yet,  when  one  studies  the  Old  Testament  in  all  its 
parts  it  is  remarkable  how  much  is  said  suggestive  of  a 
personal  Divine  Spirit.  The  Spirit  of  God  "moves,"- 
or  broods, — upon  the  face  of  the  waters,  at  the  Crea- 
tion. Pharaoh  says  of  Joseph:  "Can  we  find  such  a 
one  as  this  is,  a  man  in  whom  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is?" 
Jehovah  says  to  Moses,  in  respect  to  Bezalel,  chief  of 
the  workmen  selected  for  the  construction  and  adorn- 
ment of  the  tabernacle:  "I  have  filled  him  with  the 

Spirit  of  God."     In  Job  26 : 13  it  reads:  "By  His  Spirit 

*•  *  •  ^~«— • — «*— ••"        , 

the  Heavens  are  garnished,"  and  in    chapter  33  :  4 


6  THE  HOLY  SPIBIT 

Job  says  of  himself,  "The  Spirit  of  God  hath  made  me." 
In  Proverbs  1  :  23  we  find:  "Behold,  I  will  pour  out 
my  Spirit  unto  you."  Psalm  104,  describing  God's 
works  in  nature,  in  reference  to  animal  life,  says: 
"Thou  sendest  forth  Thy  Spirit,  they  are  created." 

It  is  in  the  Psalms,  the  later  ones  especially,  that  we 
begin  to  find  allusions  to  the  Spirit  as  working  His 
beneficent  work  in  the  human  soul,  searching  the 
conscience,  and  instructing  man  in  the  ways  of  right- 
eousness; as  in  Psalm  139:  "Whither  shall  I  go  from 
Thy  Spirit?"  It  has  been  thought  to  be  a  sign  of  the 
lateness  of  Psalm  5 1 ,  that  in  it  occurs  the  prayer :  ' '  Take 
not  Thy  holy  Spirit  from  me;  restore  unto  me  the  joy 
of  thy  salvation,  and  uphold  me  with  thy  free  (that  is, 
thy 'willing)  Spirit." 

For  it  is  in  the  later  Psalms  and  in  the  Prophets  that 
we  find  these  more  spiritual  petitions,  and  expectations 
of  spiritual  help  and  deliverance,  as  also  stronger 
suggestions  of  a  personal  Spirit;  in  Isaiah  11:  "The 
Spirit  of  the  Lord  shall  rest  upon  him";  in  chapter  32: 
"Until  the  Spirit  shall  be  poured  upon  us  from  on 
high  " ;  and  in  chapter  59 :  "  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  shall 
lift  up  a  standard  against  him."  It  is  in  Joel  2  that  we 
find  the  distinct  and  most  comforting  promise,  cited  by 
St.  Peter  on  the  day  of  Pentecost  as  having  begun  then 
to  be  fulfilled:  "It  shall  come  to  pass  that  I  will  pour 
out  my  Spirit  upon  all  flesh." 

II 

The  New  Testament  doctrine  of  the  Spirit  begins 
where  the  Old  Testament  doctrine  breaks  off: 

"The  Holy  Spirit  of  the  Gospels  and  the  Acts,  of  the  Epistles 
and  the  Apocalypse,  is  still  God  exerting  power,  especially  life- 


IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  7 

giving  power;  the  Spirit  of  God  which  moved  on  the  face  of  the 
waters,  which  inspired  the  Prophets  and  the  Psalmists,  which 
guided  Israel  and  dwelt  in  the  hearts  of  those  members  of  the 
nation  who  were  Israelites  indeed.  But  his  presence  under  the 
New  Covenant  is  manifested  in  the  Conception  and  Baptism,  the 
life  and  ministry  of  Jesus  Christ ;  in  the  regeneration  and  renewal 
of  the  members  of  Christ;  in  the  common  life  and  work  of  His 
mystical  Body,  the  Universal  Church." 

Here,  as  in  the  older  Scriptures,  the  revelation  is 
progressive,  but  at  once  there  are  clearer  intimations  of 
the  Spirit's  distinct  personality.  At  the  Baptism  of 
our  Lord  the  Spirit  of  God  "descends,"  while  a  voice  is 
heard  coming  from  Another.  It  is  the  Father,  who 
says  of  Jesus:  "This  is  my  beloved  Son." 

To  the  disciples  going  forth  to  teach  of  Him,  Christ 
says:  "It  is  not  ye  that  speak,  but  the  Spirit  of  my 
Father  that  speaketh  in  you." 

The  most  significant  of  the  many  references  are, 
first,  those  which  bear  on  the  Spirit's  relation  to  Christ 
in  His  ministry  and  sacrificial  work;  in  His  official 
anointing  at  the  Jordan;  in  His  fasting  and  tempta- 
tion, to  which  He  is  led,  yes,  driven  by  the  Spirit;  in 
His  teaching,  in  which  He  "speaketh  the  words  of  God, 
for  God  giveth  not  the  Spirit  by  measure  unto  him"; 
in  His  mighty  works,  performed  by  His  own  testimony 
with  "the  Finger  of  God,"  or  "the  Spirit  of  God" 
(Matt.  12  :  28;  Luke  11  :  20);  in  the  atoning  sacrifice, 
for  it  was  "through  the  eternal  Spirit"  that  Christ's 
sacred  human  will  "conquered  its  aversion  to  death 
and  for  love  to  His  Father  and  His  people  made  Him  a 
sacrifice  for  sin  without  blemish,  as  a  perfect  offering." 
It  is  evident  from  St.  Paul's  words  in  Romans  8  :  11, 
that  he  saw  in  the  Holy  Ghost  the  efficient  cause  of  our 


8  THE  HOLT  SPIRIT 

Lord's  resurrection:  "If  the  Spirit  of  him  that  raised 
up  Jesus  from  the  dead  dwell  in  you,  he  that  raised  up 
Christ  from  the  dead  shall  also  quicken  your  mortal 
bodies  by  his  Spirit  that  dwelleth  in  you." 

The  interest  the  inspired  Apostle  has  in  thus  revealing 
the  divine  Spirit's  personal  agency  in  Christ's  glorious 
resurrection  is  a  distinctly  practical  one.  As  it  was 
with  our  Saviour,  so  will  it  be  with  us.  The  Spirit 
it  is,  who  will  "re-unite  our  human  spirit  to  the  proper 
dwelling,  not  as  a  mere  tenement,  but  as  a  home 
insusceptible  of  further  death."  But  does  not  a  like 
practical  interest,  as  respects  the  members  of  Christ, 
attach  itself  to  the  gracious  and  all-powerful  Spirit's 
relation  to  our  Lord's  life  in  the  flesh  from  beginning 
to  end? 

It  is  a  matter  for  regret,  that  Kenotists,  even 
moderate  ones,  have  in  some  points  gone  too  far  in 
their  commendable  endeavor  clearly  to  bring  out  the 
extent  and  manner  of  the  Son  of  God's  dependence  on 
the  Spirit  as  very  Man.  The  present  writer  has 
experienced  something  of  this  regret  in  regard  to  an 
occasional  discourse  of  his  own,  delivered,  and  printed, 
many  years  ago.  Words  were  employed  respecting  the 
degree  and  manner  of  our  Lord's  dependence  on  the 
Holy  Ghost  during  His  life  in  the  flesh,  which  to-day 
he  would  guard  himself  from  using.  While  saying  this 
he  desires  also  to  discharge  his  individual  debt  of 
gratitude  to  Bishop  Frank  Weston,  of  Zanzibar,  for  a 
work  entitled  "The  One  Christ."  In  this  notable 
volume  on  a  subject  of  lasting  theological  and  practical 
interest  the  author  has  endeavored  to  follow,  and  as  it 
seems  to  many  has  succeeded  beyond  any  former 
writer  in  following,  faithfully,  "the  evidence  of  the 


IN  THE  SYNOPTIC  GOSPELS  9 

Scriptures,  interpreted  within  the  limits  set  by  the 
decrees  of  the  Catholic  Church,  in  no  case  transgressing 
a  dogmatic  ruling  of  the  Church,  or  refusing  to  allow 
for  a  fact  recorded  in  the  Gospels." 

j_n  the  Synoptic  Gospels  there  are  three  passages 
only  to  which  reference  need  be  made  here.     They  all 
bear  with  great  force  on  our  subject.     There  is,  jirst,  our  / « 
Lord's  saying:  "If  ye,  evil  as  ye  are,  know  how  to  give 
good  things  to  your  children,  how  much  more  shall 
your  heavenly  Father  give  the  Holy  Spirit  to  them  that 
ask  him?"     The  second  passage  is  the  one  concerning    ^ 
the  sin  of  denying  the  Spirit:   " Whosoever  speaketh  a 
^word  against  the  Son  of  man,  it  shall  be  forgiven  him; 
but  whosoever  speaketh   a  word   against   the   Holy     jir 
Ghost,  it  shall  not  be  forgiven  him,  neither  in  this 
world,  neither  in  the  world  to  come."     Nothing  could 
have    been    uttered    more    distinctly    implying    the 
Spirit's  personality,  and  the  supreme  importance  of  His 
work  for  and  in  man. 

The  third  word  is  the  formula  for  the  administration  3  - 
of  baptism.  Believers  are  to  be  baptized  in  (or  into) 
the  Name  of  the  Three  Divine  Persons.  "Had  the 
words  run  simply,  '  into  the  Father  and  the  Son  and  the 
Holy  Spirit? }  they  might  have  been  interpreted  as 
merely  implying  the  incorporation  of  believers  by 
Christ's  baptism  into  the  fellowship  of  the  Holy  Trinity. 
But  into  the  name  seems  to  suggest  the  further  thought 
of  proprietorship.  The  baptized  person  is  not  only 
brought  into  union  with  the  Three,  but  he  is  devoted  to 
Their  service,  living  thenceforth  a  consecrated  life." 

It  is  in  St.  John's  Gospel  and  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul  */ 
that  we  find  the  most  advanced  teaching  concerning  the 
Spirit.    This  is  one  of  the  features  in  which  the  Fourth 


10  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 

Gospel  has  something  of  the  character  of  an  Epistle,  as 
conveying  to  the  Church,  after  the  Lord's  Ascension, 
truths  which  the  disciples  had  not  been  "able  to  bear," 
in  other  words,  spiritually  to  apprehend,  before  receiv- 
ing the  supreme  gift  of  the  Spirit.  In  this  Gospel  there 
is  found  the  fulfilment  of  the  Lord's  promise  that  the 
Spirit  would  bring  to  the  Church's  remembrance 
"things"  He  had  said.  There  is  also  a  showing  of  the 
truth  about  Christ  and  His  "things,"  for  which 
believers  were  not  prepared  while  He  was  present  with 
them  in  the  flesh.  We  must  look  then  upon  the  rich 
revelations  in  the  Fourth  Gospel  and  St.  Paul's  Epistles 
respecting  Christ's  Spirit,  the^  Comfprterj  the  Teacher, 
and  the  One  who  should  henceforth  dwell  in  the  Church, 
as  truths  communicated  by  the  Spirit  Himself.  It  was 
for  Christ,  and  in  fulfilment  of  His  gracious  promise, 
that  the  Holy  Ghost  imparted  these  truths. 

It  will  be  helpful,  then,  to  the  purpose  of  this  book  to 
give  special  attention  to  St.  John's  words.  Let  Dr. 
Swete  be  our  guide  here.  (H.  B.  Swete,  "The  Holy 
Spirit  in  the  New  Testament,"  pages  72-108.)  Ho 
tells  us  that  in  the  earlier  chapters  the  Holy  Spirit  is 
revealed  as  the  author  of  the  spiritual  life  to  men 
individually;  in  the  later  ones  we  have  the  relation  in 
which  He  will  stand  to  the  future  Church  as  a  brother- 
hood, represented  by  the  company  assembled  in  the 
upper  room.  He  is  the  other  Advocate,  or  Defender  of 
the  Church,  and  "the  Acta  Martyrum,  the  whole  history 
of  the  Church,  and  the  lives  of  countless  believers  who 
have  no  place  in  history,  bear  witness  to  the  fulfilment 
of  this  office  of  the  Paraclete-Spirit  in  the  Body  of 
Christ." 

The  world  will  be  unconscious  of  His  presence,  tor 


IN  THE  FOURTH  GOSPEL  11 

the  Spirit  is  sent  to  the  Church,  to  "those  disciples 
who  have  learned  to  apprehend  spiritual  things  through  ' 
fellowship  with  the  Lord."  The  Son  had  come  to 
reveal  and  to  glorify  the  Father;  the  Spirit  comes  to 
reveal  the  Son,  and  will  teach  all  that  belongs  to  the 
sphere  of  spiritual  truth  in  Christ.  The  "reminding" 
of  Christ  will  go  much  farther  than  a  mere  recovery  of 
the  Lord's  sayings.  It  will  enable  those  who  have 
been  present  to  live  through  His  ministry  again  with  a 
new  appreciation  of  its  meaning,,  form  the  basis  of  the 
Apostles'  teaching,  and  be  "ultimately  the  nucleus  of 
that  great  stream  of  tradition  which  has  moulded 
Christian  belief  and  practice  from  their  time  to  our 
own."  "The  Truth  given  in  Christ  will,"  as  Dr.  Hort 
has  said,  "need  from  age  to  age  His  (the  Spirit's) 
expounding  to  unlock  its  stores." 

The  Eleven  had  had  their  training  and  experience  with 
the  Lord,  but  without  the  gift  of  Pentecost  these  would 
have  been  barren  of  results;  but  on  the  other  hand  the 
gift  of  Pentecost  would  have  yielded  widely  different 
results  if  it  had  not  fallen  on  men  who  "were  with 
Jesus"  and  could  testify  to  what  they  had  seen  and 
heard.  "This  collaboration  of  the  human  witness 
with  the  Divine  extends  to  the  whole  life  of  the  Church, 
which  is  a  continuous  joint  testimony  of  the  Spirit  and 
the  Bride." 

The  Spirit  would  convict  the  conscience  of  sin.  The 
very  men  who  had  cried  "Crucify  him"  and  reviled 
Him  would  in  the  light  of  the  Spirit  "turned  on  them" 
perceive  that  they  had  rejected  God's  only-begotten 
Son,  and  cry,  "What  shall  we  do?"  The  Spirit  brings 
home  to  men,  that  by  the  life  and  death  of  Jesus  Christ 
judgment  has  been  passed  on  the  ruler  of  this  world. 


12  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 

This  judgment  is  still  in  force  and  fruitful  of  results. 
The  Spirit  is  causing  men  to  realize  it,  and  they  live 
henceforth  as  knowing  that  since  the  Lord's  Resurrec- 
tion "the  issues  of  the  great  struggle  are  determined, 
and  every  day  is  bringing  nearer  the  final  victory  of 
righteousness  and  the  final  doom  of  sin." 

The  Spirit  would  thus  shift  the  whole  standpoint  of 
human  opinion  with  reference  to  Sin  and  Righteousness 
and  the  conflict  between  them.  That  He  has  done  this 
is  "  to  be  seen  to-day  in  the  changed  attitude  of  modern 
thought  and  practice  when  it  is  compared  with  that  of 
Graeco-Roman  society  in  the  time  of  our  Lord.  The 
modern  world  is  far  from  being  under  the  control  of 
the  Spirit  of  Christ,  but  pagan  as  it  may  remain  in  heart 
it  has  been  convinced  of  certain  great  ethical  truths, 
and  can  never  return  to  the  worst  vices  or  the  heartless 
selfishness  of  the  older  heathendom." 

The  Spirit  was  not  to  "speak  of,"  or  rather  from, 
Himself.  Christ  had  not  spoken  from  Himself,  in 
other  words,  was  not  the  Source  of  His  own  teaching, 
but  spoke  what  He  had  received  from  the  Father;  and 
the  Spirit  will  but  carry  forward  the  same  teaching, 
"essentially  one  with  that  of  our  Lord,  since  its  Source 
was  the  same."  He  will  interpret  and  expand  and 
apply  the  Christ  truths. 

"He  will  declare  the  coming  things;  the  things  of  that  great  and 
untried  life  which  was  about  to  open  before  the  Church  at  the 
Pentecost,  and  to  reach  its  perfection  at  the  Second  Coming; 
the  things  of  the  new  age,  the  dispensation  of  the  Spirit;  and, 
less  distinctly  seen,  the  things  of  the  more  distant  future  when 
God  shall  be  all  in  all.  Thus,  while  this  promise  includes  the 
revelations  of  the  Christian  Prophets,  it  covers  also  the  whole 
unfolding  before  the  Christian  Society  in  the  Apostolic  writings, 
in  the  work  of  her  Bishops  and  Doctors,  and  in  the  experience 


IN  THE  ACTS  13 

of  life,  the  ideals,  the  polity,  and  the  prospects  of  the  Body  of 
Christ." 

The  Spirit  would  "glorify"  Christ.  How?  asks  Dr.  Swete. 
"Not  by  shedding  upon  the  Person  and  work  of  the  Lord  any 
new  glory  from  without.  All  that  a  Paul  or  a  John  has  said 
under  the  teaching  of  the  Spirit  about  the  glory  of  Christ  is  but  a 
disclosure  of  that  which  is  His  essential  character,  His  inalienable 
possession.  They  have  brought  much  to  light,  but  they  have 
added  nothing  to  the  glory  which  He  had  with  the  Father  before 
the  world  was." 

And  so  "the  intercommunion  and  interchange  are  absolute," 
writes  Dr.  Swete.  "The  Only-begotten  interprets  the  Father; 
the  Spirit  interprets  the  Son,  and  the  Father  in  the  Son.  Thus 
the  revelation  of  God  is  completed  by  the  coming  of  the  Spirit." 

III 

Passing  to  the  Acts,  we  reach  at  once  the  tremendous 
event  of  the  First  Whitsunday.  The  promised  Spirit 
descends  upon  the  Church  of  Christ.  Instituted  by 
Christ  in  the  days  between  His  Resurrection  and 
Ascension,  and  more  particularly  in  the  moment  when 
He  breathed  upon  the  disciples  and  said,  "Receive  ye 
the  Holy  Ghost,"  we  may  say  that  the  Spirit  Himself 
took  part  in  that  institution.  Our  Lord  spoke  and 
acted  in  the  Spirit  during  those  forty  days.  We  are 
told  that  Christ  then  gave  commandments  to  the 
Apostles  whom  He  had  chosen,  "through  the  Holy 
Ghost." 

It  was,  then,  through  the  Spirit  that  Christ  im- 
parted the  "firstfruits,"  the  "earnest  of  the  Spirit," 
a  prophetic  and  typical  action  of  the  Son,  throwing 
light  forward  on  the  Whitsunday  event  as  a  sending  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  by  the  Father  and  the  Son.  This  event 
itself,  following  upon  the  glorious  Ascension  of  our  Lord 
to  the  Father,  when  all  power  is  given  to  Him  in  heaven 


14  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 

and  earth  as  the  triumphant  God-man,  is  a  veritable 
Epiphany  of  the  Third  Person  in  the  Godhead.  He 
now  in  His  turn  has  come  into  the  world  to  be  known 
as  God,  but  as  the  Spirit  of  the  Incarnate  Son,  risen 
and  glorified  and  dwelling  as  Man  in  heaven.  The 
"signs"  with  which  His  coming  is  announced  are  the 
insignia  of  a  Divine  presence  and  power.  Scarcely 
would  a  Christian  Jew  who  knew  his  Genesis,  and  his 
Job,  and  Psalms  of  Nature  like  the  97th,  fail  to  recog- 
nize in  the  mighty  wind  and  the  fire  evidences  of  the 
presence  of  the  Creator-Spirit. 

Named  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  the  Book  we  have  now 
to  examine  is  much  more  what  the  late  Dr.  A.  T. 
Pierson  was  moved  to  call  it,  "The  Acts  of  the  Holy 
Spirit' ' ;  for,  while  engaged  in  carrying  forward  the  work 
of  Christ  in  the  world,  the  Spirit  is  necessarily  revealing 
Himself  all  through  this  first  chapter  in  the  history  of 
the  Church  and  of  Missions. 

Should  we  not  anticipate  this?  Are  we  not  taught 
to  worship  Him  as  no  less  than  that 

"Creator-Spirit,  by  whose  aid 
The  world's  foundations  first  were  laid"? 

The  Agent  in  the  incarnation  of  God's  Son,  and  with 
Him  throughout  His  entire  earthly  experience,  He  is 
present  and  active  now  as  Life-giver  and  Guide  to  His 
Church. 

If  it  be  objected  that  in  the  New  Testament  Christ  is 
set  forth  as  the  Builder  and  Maker  of  His  Church,  as 
also  of  the  World  at  the  beginning,  in  Colossians  1st, 
where  it  reads,  "by  Him  were  all  things  created," 
"by  Him  all  things  consist,"  in  Hebrews  1st,  "His 
Son,  whom  He  appointed  heir  of  all  things,  through 


THE  VICAR  or  JESUS  CHRIST  15 

whom  also  He  made  the  worlds";  I  reply,  that  the 
more  correct  rendering  is,  "in  Him  were  all  things 
created,  and  in  Him  all  things  consist."  What  is 
most  striking  in  the  Trinity  as  revealed  in  Holy  Scrip- 
ture, is  the  different  yet  perfectly  ordered  and  harmoni- 
ous working  of  the  Three.  The  Father  created  all 
things  in  heaven  and  earth  in  (or  through)  the  Son,  and 
for  Him;  but  by  the  Holy  Ghost. 

He  is  the  Vicar  of  the  ascended  and  unseen  Lord. 
The  scene  opens  with  Him  at  the  head  and  in  charge, 
"the  Lord,  the  Spirit."  At  the  outset  He  is  designated 
the  Holy  Ghost  through  whom  Jesus  had  "given 
commandment  unto  the  apostles  whom  He  had 
chosen."  Matthias  is  chosen  in  the  place  of  Judas, 
a  traitor  in  fulfilment  of  words  spoken  anciently  by  the 
Holy  Ghost.  St.  Peter's  Pentecostal  sermon  opens 
with  the  promise  of  the  Spirit,  in  Joel.  They  upon 
whom  the  gift  comes,  speak  as  the  Spirit  gives  them 
utterance.  Always  He  is  referred  to  as  a  Person,  and 
that  a  divine  Person.  When  Ananias  and  Sapphira  lie 
regarding  the  price  of  the  possession  they  have  sold, 
they  "lie  to  the  Holy  Ghost."  St.  Stephen  says  to 
the  unbelieving  Jews,  ready  to  stone  him  to  death, 
"Ye  do  always  resist  the  Holy  Ghost;  as  your  fathers 
did  so  do  ye."  What  more  personal  and  divinely 
authoritative  utterance  than  the  word  to  Philip,  going 
down  from  Jerusalem  to  Gaza  and  beholding  the 
Eunuch?  "Then  the  Spirit  said  unto  Philip,  Go  near 
and  join  thyself  to  this  chariot."  When  St.  Peter, 
obedient  to  a  vision,  has  gone  to  the  Roman  Cornelius, 
who  obedient  to  another  vision  has  sent  for  him,  and 
the  first  apostolic  word  to  the  Gentiles  has  been  spoken, 
the  Holy  Ghost  falls  "on  all  them  which  heard  the 


16  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 

word,"  and  clear  it  is  that  the  visions  have  been  sent, 
and  this  same  forward  step  of  the  Church  has  been 
taken,  in  obedience  to  the  Spirit. 

Later,  in  Antioch,  where  prophets  and  teachers  are 
assembled,  fasting  and  praying  and  waiting  for  guid- 
ance, a  yet  more  important  step  is  taken,  and  the  Holy 
Ghost  it  is  who  is  described  as  ordering  it.  He  appears 
here  as  Lord,  as  truly  as  Jesus  is  Lord;  saith,  "  Separate 
me  Barnabas  and  Saul  for  the  work  whereunto  I  have 
called  them."  They  go  on  that  unexpected  and 
momentous  missionary  journey  through  Asia  Minor, 
being  "sent  forth  by  the  Holy  Ghost." 

The  first  Church  Council  is  held  in  Jerusalem; 
and  from  it  a  message  goes  to  the  believers  in  Antioch 
in  respect  to  the  question  in  regard  to  circumcising 
the  Gentile  believers  in  Christ,  Thus  and  so  let  it  be 
done,  for  so  it  hath  "seemed  good  to  the  Holy  Ghost, 
and  to  us." 

"The  Holy  Ghost,"  said  St.  Paul,  "testifieth  unto  me 
in  every  city,  saying  that  bonds  and  afflictions  abide 
me."  Perhaps  the  most  remarkable  indication, — in 
various  senses  remarkable,  and  suggestive  as  regards 
the  divine  method  in  missions, — is  the  instance  of  the 
Spirit's  plain  interference  with  St.  Paul's  plan  to 
preach  Christ  in  the  little  district  called  Asia,  and, 
when  hindered  from  so  doing,  again  in  the  region 
named  Bithynia.  It  was  clearly  the  purpose  of  the 
Spirit  not  to  sacrifice  time  then  for  the  sake  of  work 
near  home,  but  to  push  on  with  all  speed  to  make 
Christ  known  in  distant  lands.  It  meant  sowing  the 
seed  without  delay  in  Europe.  Nowhere  can  one 
perceive  more  distinctly  the  wisdom  and  the  will  of 
that  Third  Person  in  the  Godhead  to  Whom  the  sowing 


IN  THE  EPISTLES  17 

and  gathering  of  the  Lord's  harvest  had  been  com- 
mitted. We  Christians  of  the  West  were  more  con- 
cerned in  that  authoritative  decision,  and  insistency, 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  than  we  have  been  capable  of  realiz- 
ing the  same.  We  may  rightly  feel  that  for  us  was 
composed  the  verse  of  Hymn  262: 

"To  Thee,  O  Holy  Ghost,  Whose  gracious  rain 
And  living  breath  hath  fed  the  ghostly  grain, 
We  sing  our  Alleluia!" 

IV 

Having  seen  how  clearly  the  Spirit's  divine  person- 
ality is  manifested  in  action  in  the  book  named  Acts,  we 
turn  to  the  Epistles,  and  behold  the  same  truth  exhib- 
ited in  a  different  way.  It  is  in  the  way  of  thought  and 
interpretation.  Rightly  understood, — taken  in  connec- 
tion with  Christ's  " promise  of  the  Spirit," — these 
Epistles  contain  a  fuller  revelation  of  Gospel  truth  than  t- 
the  Gospels  themselves.  I  say  this  with  emphasis. 
Many  have  thought  to  find  the  purest,  truest  message 
about  Christ,  if  not  the  whole  message,  in  Christ's 
own  words  spoken  on  earth.  How  can  this  be  the 
case  in  view  of  His  words  regarding  the  Spirit  as 
Another  Teacher,  who  should  guide  His  people  into 
all  the  truth  concerning  Himself?  that  truth  would 
include  His  Sacrifice  on  the  Cross,  His  Resurrection, 
His  Ascension  to  the  throne  of  God  in  His  glorified 
Manhood.  How  could  the  deep  and  infinitely  far- 
reaching  significance  of  those  events  be  unfolded  to 
humanity  before  they  had  taken  place?  We  may  be 
sure  that  fewer  thoughtful  and  earnest  Christians 
would  have  made  this  mistake,  had  the  doctrine  of  the 
Spirit  not  been  indeed  "sadly  neglected," 
2 


18  THF,  HOLY  SPIRIT 

Taking  up  the  Epistle  of  St.  James,  as  probably  the 
first  inspired  letter  written  to  Christians,  what  do  we 
find?  At  the  outset  it  would  appear  that  we  find 
nothing.  If,  however,  certain  trustworthy  commen- 
tators are  right  in  interpreting  the  words  in  the  fifth 
verse  of  the  fourth  chapter,  translated:  "The  spirit 
that  dwelleth  in  us  lusteth  to  envy"  (in  the  Revised 
Version:  "Doth  the  spirit  which  he  made  to  dwell  in 
us  long  unto  envying?" — in  Mayor's  free  translation, 
"jealously  yearn  for  the  entire  devotion  of  the  heart?"), 
as  referring  to  the  Holy  Spirit,  we  have  one  of  the  most 
touching  utterances  concerning  Him  in  the  entire 
New  Testament.  Moving  and  pathetic  indeed  were 
those  passages  in  the  ancient  writings  which  represented 
Jehovah  as  yearning  for  Israel's  love  and  devotion. 
One  glance  back  to  the  verse  before,  "Ye  adulteresses, 
know  ye  not  that  the  friendship  of  the  world  is  enmity 
with  God?"  convinces  us  that  we  are  on  the  track  of 
the  divine  thought.  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost, 
the  Three  in  One,  love  man  with  a  love  that  has  the 
first  claim;  and  through  the  Pentecostal  Spirit  it  is 
that  this  claim  is  now  revealed,  and  every  day  pressed 
upon  us,  with  a  jealous  affection. 

Passing  to  1st  Thessalonians,  also  a  very  early 
letter,  we  find  a  like  earnest  word  of  St.  Paul,  which,  as 
Dr.  Downer  has  pointed  out,  leads  the  mind  at  once  to 
the  thought  of  Pentecost.  "'Quench  not  the  Spirit,'" 
he  says,  "looks  back  to  the  fiery  tongues,  which, 
though  invisible,  still  burn  in  the  Christian's  heart." 

The  phrase,  "God,  who  hath  also  given  unto  us 
his  Spirit — the  Holy"  (chapter  4:8),  gives  a  strong 
impression  alike  of  Personality  and  Divinity. 

In  1st  Corinthians  2  ;  10,  "The  Spirit  searcheth  the 


IN  THE  EPISTLES  19 

deep  things  of  God,"  conveys  the  same  twofold  im- 
pression. (Dr.  A.  C.  Downer,  "Mission  and  Minis- 
tration of  the  Holy  Spirit,"  pp.  147,  149.) 

It  remains  to  give  a  brief  glance  at  other  words  in  the 
Epistles  bearing  on  this  truth.  In  1st  Corinthians 
12  :  11,  we  find  the  Spirit  spoken  of  as  dispensing 
different  spiritual  gifts  to  men  as  He  wills;  find  in 
Romans  8  :  6,  "The  mind  of  the  Spirit  is  life  and 
peace."  In  Romans  15  :  30  the  Apostle  asks  for  the 
prayers  of  the  saints,  blessing  them  "for  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ's  sake,  and  for  the  love  of  the  Spirit." 
In  Ephesians  4  :  30  he  writes,  "Grieve  not  the  Holy 
Spirit  of  God  in  whom  ye  were  sealed  unto  the  day  of 
redemption."  It  is  as  though  he  had  in  mind  a  careful 
housekeeper  who  has  sealed  and  put  away  something 
she  would  keep  pure  and  sweet,  worthy  of  being 
brought  forth  and  used  on  a  day  of  joy  and  feasting. 
Think  of  her  disappointment,  in  an  hour  when  it  is 
brought  forth  neither  sweet  nor  worthy.  So  the  Holy 
Spirit  is  grieved  when  men  baptized,  sealed,  set  apart 
for  Christ,  are  found  full  of  bitterness  and  wrath  and 
anger,  and  the  like.  Dr.  Torrey  has  asked  us  to  think 
of  a  mother's  grief,  when  a  son,  who  has  been  brought 
up  hi  ways  of  filial  obedience  and  purity,  forsakes 
them. 

There  is  the  remarkable  passage  concerning  the 
Spirit's  intercession,  going  on  within  us  while  God's 
Son  intercedes  for  us  before  the  Throne  of  heaven. 
It  is  the  Other  Advocate,  befriending  us  in  His  own 
way,  identifying  Himself  with  our  very  personality. 
It  is  "with  groanings  that  cannot  be  uttered."  Silently, 
secretly,  as  when,  by  the  Spirit's  instrumentality,  the 
wondrous  gift  was  given  to  our  race  of  which  the  chil- 


20  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 

dren  sing  in  the  dear  Christmas-tide,  and  as  when  the 
Christ-life  is  imparted  to  us  individually  at  the  sacred 
font,  the  same  Spirit  communicates  to  the  soul  the 
longing  for  divine  forgiveness  or  help,  which,  "uttered 
or  unexpressed,"  is  prayer.  Must  it  not  be  a  Divine 
Spirit, — a  Personal  Spirit, — equal  in  essence  with  the 
Father  and  the  Son,  that  can  do  this,  and  will  in  His 
love  do  it,  in  Christians  "throughout  the  world?" 


Coming,  finally,  to  the  Apocalypse,  the  same  truth  is 
conveyed  to  our  minds.  We  are  not  confused  by  the 
mention  of  seven  spirits  before  the  throne.  Seven  is 
a  mystical  number  in  the  Scriptures.  It  suggests 
completeness,  and  evidently  these  spirits  before  the 
throne  are  the  various  operations  of  the  One  Spirit 
who  is  on  the  throne.  So  do  the  seven  Churches 
represent  all  the  Churches  that  are,  or  ever  will  be, 
living  branches  of  Christ's  One  Church  Catholic. 
If,  now,  a  message  of  grace  and  peace  comes,  through 
St.  John,  to  these  Churches,  from  the  Eternal  Father, 
and  "from  Jesus  Christ,"  and  also  "from  the  seven 
spirits,"  must  not  the  Holy  Ghost  be  also  an  Eternal 
and  Divine  Person? 

St.  John  has  a  vision  of  the  Ascended  Jesus  in  his 
glorified  Manhood,  and  He,  who,  having  been  dead,  is 
now  alive  for  evermore,  bids  him,  "Write."  He 
writes  a  message  to  every  Church;  but  at  the  end  of 
each  are  the  words:  "Hear  what  the  Spirit  saith  to 
the  Churches."  When  we  come  to  the  end  of  the  book, 
we  have  the  Church  earnestly  praying  for  the  second 
advent  of  her  Lord ;  St.  Peter  expresses  it,  "  hastening 
the  day  of  the  Lord"  by  her  prayers;  but  the  Spirit 


IN  THE  APOCALYPSE  21 

is,  in  like  manner,  inviting  Him.  In  the  words  of  Dr. 
Downer:  "The  great  Book  closes  with  the  Spirit  and 
the  Bride,  the  Church  of  Christ,  testifying  in  combina- 
tion to  the  second  coming  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  and 
responding  to  His  announcement,  'Behold,  I  come 
quickly/  with  the  intense  and  impassioned  appeal, 
'Come.'" 

We  shall  have  occasion  later  to  make  practical  use  of 
some  of  the  truths  which  we  have  been  engaged  in 
noting;  but  before  passing  to  the  next  section,  shall  we 
not  pause  to  underline,  as  with  a  pencil,  this  one 
thought?  Our  Lord's  promise  to  His  Church,  recorded 
in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  chapters  of  St.  John,  of 
another,  evidently  divine,  Person,  who  should  abide 
with  it  forever, — taken  in  connection  with  the  first, 
great,  inspired  chapter  of  Christian  missions,  Acts  of 
the  Apostles,  Acts  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  interpreted 
by  abundant  references  to  Him  in  the  Epistles  and  the 
Apocalypse, — prove  the  Anglicized  Greek  word  Para- 
clete to  be  a  word  of  the  richest  and  most  comprehen- 
sive significance.  The  Spirit  was  to  be, — and,  when 
the  Church  will  let  Him  and  invoke  Him  to  be,  He  is, — 
all  that  Christ  could  be  to  her.  He  is,  as  it  were,  Christ 
Himself  to  the  Church,  until  Christ  shall  come  again; 
not  Teacher  and  Comforter,  Advocate  and  Intercessor 
only;  not  merely  "Fount  of  life,  and  Fire  of  love"; 
but  also  Guide  and  Leader.  We  must  think  of  Him 
as  called  to  the  side  of  the  divine-human  Lord,  as 
truly  as  to  our  side,  His  Paraclete  as  well  as  ours. 
Mystically  He  takes  the  place  of  Christ,  being  His 
Vice-gerent,  or  Vicar,  in  the  Church  Universal,  for  the 
time  being  deputed,  or  authorized,  to  perform  His 
manifold  divine  functions,  "the  Lord,  the  Spirit." 


22  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 

The  idea  of  the  Latin  Church,  that  our  Lord  would 
'  not  have  gone  to  the  Father  without  leaving  to  His 
Church  throughout  the  world  just  such  a  consoler, 
friend,  and  guide,  in  whom  His  own  leadership  and 
authority  should  be  vested,  was  wholly  true  to  our 
Lord's  thought  and  purpose.  Its  tremendous,  fateful, 
mistake  has  consisted  in  believing  that  such  a  glorious 
heavenly  office  could  be  occupied  either  by  a  woman, 
though  it  were  His  own  blessed  mother, — as  Chaucer 
has  it  (cited  in  the  Century  Dictionary), 

l\"  "He  hath  thee  [the  Virgin]  maked  vicaire  and  mistresse 

Of  al  the  world," 

hff 

— or  by  a  succession  of  men,  fallible,  or  miraculously 

infallible. 

God  in  His  loving  providence  has  prevented  the  error 
of  Rome  from  being  fatal  to  His  Church  and  to  human- 
ity. He  has  overruled  it,  made  it  at  times  work  for 
good,  as  we  shall  have  opportunity  to  see.  But  it  has 
also  wrought  an  incalculable  amount  of  harm.  One 
evil  feature  has  been  that  the  false  idea,  the  caricature, 
has  for  centuries  veiled,  if  not  hidden,  the  true  one. 
The  reprobate  silver,  being  stamped  with  the  image  and 
superscription  of  the  King,  has  served  in  great  degree 
to  depreciate  the  royal  money.  In  other  words,  the 
dream  of  an  infallible,  supremely  authoritative  human 
Vicar  of  Jesus  Christ  on  earth,  has  helped  to  obscure 
the  prophetic  vision,  yes,  the  clearly  announced,  and  at 
Pentecost  clearly  confirmed,  truth,  of  an  all-powerful, 
all-wise  Leader,  Guide,  and  Protector  of  the  Church, 
the  unseen,  ever-present  Paraclete. 

Is  it  too  much  to  affirm,  that  if  the  Church  Catholic 
had  conserved  her  unity,  and  integrity  of  credal  faith, 


IN  EARLY  CHURCH  TEACHING  23 

in  the  Spirit,  been  always  conscious  of  His  presence, 
invoked  Him  in  Councils  that  were  universal,  and 
obeyed  Him  as  the  true  Vice-gerent  of  Christ,  she 
would  have  been  practically  infallible  in  every  age? 

VI 

The  task  which  now  lies  before  is  the  comparatively 
easy  one  of  ascertaining  what  has  been  from  the  begin- 
ning the  Church's  voice  in  regard  to  the  Spirit,  and 
the  answer  may  in  large  part  be  given  in  the  words  of 
Dr.  James  Orr(" Progress  of  Dogma,  "2d  ed.,  page  125): 

"The  earliest  age  of  the  Church  shows  little  trace  of  reflection 
on  the  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  From  the  first  the  Church 
acknowledged  the  Threefold  name  of  Father,  Son,  and  Spirit, 
and  so,  implicitly,  may  be  said  to  have  confessed  the  deity  and 
personality  of  the  Spirit.  But  there  was  no  dogmatic  treatment 
of  the  subject.  The  Church  possessed  the  Spirit,  and  did  not 
feel  the  need  of  discussing  it.  For  long  the  wealth  of  material 
in  the  Apostolic  Epistles  lay  unexplored.  The  Apostolic  Fathers 
are  for  the  most  part  content  to  use  the  Scriptural  phrases. 

"The  deity  and  personality  of  the  Spirit  are  fully  recognized  by 
Irenaeus,  Tertullian,  Clement  and  Origen.  Tertullian  expressly 
calls  Him  'God,'  and  lays  stress  on  His  unity  of  essence  with 
Father  and  with  Son.  When  the  Nicene  formula  was  written, 
in  325  A.D.,  it  only  said  briefly  as  a  kind  of  appendage  to  the 
Creed,  'And  in  the  Holy  Ghost.'  It  was  apparently  taken  for 
granted  that  the  personality  and  deity  of  the  Son  being  confessed, 
that  of  the  Spirit  would  be  acknowledged  also,  as,  in  fact,  it  had 
not  hitherto  been  challenged  by  any  section  of  the  Catholic 
Church. 

"The  subject  came  up  in  a  council  held  in  Alexandria,  in  362 
A.D.,  and  the  denial  of  the  Spirit  was  there  formally  branded  as 
heresy. 

"It  was  when  the  Macedonian  heresy  came  up,  so  named  as 
espoused  by  Macedonius,  the  deposed  bishop  of  Constan- 
tinople, 'a  violent  and  unscrupulous  man,'  that  the  question 


24  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 

was  fully  and  finally  settled,  and  in  381  A.D.  the  enlarged  clause 
in  the  Nicene  Creed  was  inserted,  which  makes  explicit  the 
divinity  of  the  Spirit:  'And  (I  believe)  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  the 
Lord,  and  Giver  of  Life;  who  proceedeth  from  the  Father;  who 
with  the  Father  and  the  Son  together  is  worshipped  and  glorified; 
who  spake  by  the  prophets.'" 

It  was  a  great  step  forward,  and  one  that  needed  to 
be  taken.  To  this  voice  of  the  Church  Universal  all 
Christendom  has  listened  ever  since,  recognizing  that  it 
could  only  be  the  truth  concerning  Him  into  whose 
sacred  Name,  together  with  the  Name  of  the  Son  and 
the  Name  of  the  Father,  every  Christian  is  baptized. 
Because  he  is  so  baptized,  and  not  merely  "Christened," 
made  a  member  of  that  Body  which,  being  the 
Body  of  Christ,  is  dwelt  in  and  endued  with  all 
spiritual  life  and  power  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  there 
follows  at  once  in  that  ancient  Creed:  "And  I  believe 
in  one  Catholic  and  Apostolic  Church;  I  acknowledge 
one  Baptism  for  the  remission  of  sins." 

It  is  a  truth  generally  conceded,  that  the  language  of 
Christian  worship  is  at  all  times  likely  to  bear  truer 
witness  to  what  Christian  people  believe  than  does  any 
theological  statement.  Hymn  446  of  our  Hymnal, 
beginning: 

"Shepherd  of  tender  youth" 

was  composed  by  Clement,  of  Alexandria.  It  ante- 
dates the  Nicene  Creed  by  about  a  century  and  a  half, 
and  it  bears  fullest  possible  witness  to  the  Church's 
belief  in  Christ's  Divinity.  He  is  "our  triumphant 
King,"  our  "holy  Lord,"  and  the  "all-subduing  Word," 
the  "great  High  Priest,"  the  "Christ  of  God." 


IN  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  WORSHIP  25 

"  Let  all  the  holy  throng 
Who  to  Thy  Church  belong, 
Unite  and  swell  the  Song 
To  Christ  our  King!" 

Again,  the  New  Testament  Scriptures  were  for  a 
much  longer  period  than  most  Christians  are  apt  to 
imagine  known  only  in  parts,  and  not  equally  every- 
where. "For  generations,"  writes  Dr.  John  Fulton, 
"different  Churches  had  different  parts  of  Holy  Scrip- 
ture, and  few  had  them  all.  But  all  of  them,"  he 
adds,  "possessed  and  held  the  Christian  Faith."  He 
might  have  said  also  the  Christian  Institutions.  They 
kept  Sunday  and  not  the  Sabbath.  They  celebrated 
the  Eucharist  as  a  remembrance  of  the  Lord's  Resurrec- 
tion. This  "breaking  of  bread"  on  every  First  Day, 
and  the  prayers  and  hymns  which  accompanied  it, 
constitute  a  more  venerable  testimony  to  New  Testa- 
ment truth  than  the  sacred  writings  themselves.  As 
Dr.  Fulton  says,  the  latter,  when  better  known  and 
more  used,  "were  regarded  rather  as  means  to  faith 
than  as  objects  of  faith." 

Having,  then,  heard  the  witness  of  the  Scriptures, 
and  of  the  Church  voicing  its  conviction  in  General 
Councils,  and  in  theological  writings,  regarding  the 
Spirit's  divine  Personality,  why  should  we  not  hear  the 
testimony  of  the  Prayer  Book  itself, — that  is  to  say,  in 
its  oldest  portions?  What  have  these  to  tell  us  con- 
cerning the  early  Church's  thought  about  the  divine 
Personality  of  the  Holy  Spirit? 

Let  us  look  then  at  Gloria  in  Excelsis,  which  is,  as 
Dr.  Hart  tells  us,  "an  Eastern  hymn,  found  in  its  full 
form,  as  is  well  known,  about  the  year  450  A.D.; 
in  the  East  it  is  a  daily  morning  hymn,  not  used  as  with 


26 

us  in  the  Holy  Communion."  Of  this  early  hymn  to 
Christ,  which  begins  with  the  angels'  song  over  Bethle- 
hem's hills,  the  final  words  are:  "Thou  only,  O  Christ, 
with  the  Holy  Ghost,  art  most  high  in  the  glory  of 
God  the  Father." 

Tje_Deum  laudamus  is  probably  a  little  older  than 
Gloria  in  Excelsis,  being  now  thought  to  have  originated 
about  the  year  400,  and  it  sings  how  the  Church 
throughout  the  world  acknowledges  not  only  the  Father 
of  an  infinite  majesty,  and  His  adorable,  true  and  only 
Son,  but  "also  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Comforter." 

In  harmony  with  these  expressions  are  the  words 
which  conclude  the  ancient  Prayer  of  Consecration  in 
the  Eucharist:  "Through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  by 
whom  and  with  whom,  in  the  unity  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
all  honor  and  glory  be  unto  thee,  0  Father  Almighty, 
world  without  end." 

The  Service  of  Holy  Communion  has  come  down  to 
us,  with  the  Te  Deum  and  Gloria  in  Excelsis,  from 
what  may  be  termed  the  Nicene  age.  Together  with 
the  two  Creeds  they  bear  the  same  witness  to  the 
truth  of  the  Holy  Spirit's  personality  which  the  Bible 
bears,  from  Genesis  to  Revelation.  What  is  particu- 
larly to  be  remarked  about  the  testimony  afforded  in 
this  and  other  points  by  the  Liturgy,  is,  first,  that  it 
represents  the  consciousness  of  the  Church,  rather  than 
the  dogmatic  statements  of  a  Creed  like  that  of  Nicffia 
and  Chalcedon,  and  secondly,  that  it  is  a  universal 
consciousness : 

"The  diverse  liturgies,  Syrian,  Egyptian,  Latin,  and  others, 
representing  widely  separated  lands,  are  found  all  to  agree  so 
extraordinarily  in  a  number  of  points  as  to  prove  conclusively 
that  at  some  point  in  the  Church's  history  there  arose  a  tradition 


IN  ANCIENT  COLLECTS  27 

as  to  what  a  Eucharistic  service  should  be,  which  tradition 
absolutely  dominated  the  Church  throughout  its  length  and 
breadth." 

The  more  one  studies  liturgical  history  the  easier  it 
becomes  to  receive  this  assertion,  in  its  substance,  and 
also  hi  the  manner  of  it,  except,  perhaps,  in  one  point. 
If  the  Holy  Spirit  was  to  be  the  very  Mind  and  Soul  of 
the  Church,  interpreting  the  Will  of  her  ascended 
Lord,  might  not  the  above  mentioned  and  other 
dominating  traditions  better  be  frankly  attributed  to 
the  Spirit,  as  patterns  of  sound  words,  and  a  deposit, 
distinctly  committed  to  her  by  her  unseen,  ever- 
present  Friend  and  Guide? 

If  the  amendment  I  have  ventured  to  offer  be 
accepted,  then  is  the  witness  of  these  most  venerable 
portions  of  our  Book  regarding  the  Spirit, — like  that  in 
the  Scripture  and  the  historic  Creeds, — a  testimony  of 
the  Spirit  about  Himself.  In  all  these  ways  the  Holy 
Spirit,  while  showing  us  the  things  of  Christ,  inciden- 
tally, as  it  were,  and  yet  to  good  purpose,  shows  us 
His  own  heavenly  credentials. 

Bearing  this  hi  mind,  and  resuming  the  argument,  I 
bring  forward  certain  Collects,  demonstrably  thirteen 
to  fifteen  centuries  old,  and  in  all  probability  many 
years  older;  and  first,  _tbe  Collect  for  Whitsujoday^ 
the  Spirit's  Day.  Coming  to  us  from  the  Sacramentary 
of  Gregory,  A.D.  590,  we  pray  in  it  for  the  gifts  of  the 
Spirit,  "through  the  merits  of  Jesus  Christ  our  Saviour, 
Who  liveth  and  reigneth  with  Thee,  in  the  unity  of  the 
same  Spirit,  one  God,  world  without  end."  The 
Trinity  Sunday  Collect,  in  which  we  implore  "grace 
by  the  confession  of  a  true  faith  to  acknowledge  the 
glory  of  the  eternal  Trinity,"  is  derived  from  the  same 


THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 

venerable  source.  A  century  earlier  yet  were  com- 
posed the  Collects  for  Ascension  Day  and  the  Sunday 
after,  and  both  speak  of  Christ  as  "living  and  reigning 
with  the  Father  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  one  God,  world 
without  end."  That  for  the  Nineteenth  Sunday  after 
Trinity  reads:  "O  God,  forasmuch  as  without  Thee  we 
are  not  able  to  please  Thee,  mercifully  grant  that  Thy 
Holy  Spirit  may  in  all  things  direct  and  rule  our 
hearts." 

Thus  does  the  Prayer  Book  breathe  the  atmosphere 
and  voice  the  belief  of  primitive  Christianity  as  regards 
the  truth  with  which  this  chapter  is  concerned.  It  shows 
what  the  Church  had  been  holding  as  true  in  respect 
to  the  Spirit,  during  the  three  centuries  since  St.  John 
died,  while  the  doctrine  of  the  Spirit  was  yet  unformed, 
its  "rational  expression,"  as  Neander  termed  it,  not 
yet  clearly  manifesting  itself.  Strange  that  when  His 
power  made  itself  so  mightily  felt  in  the  life  as  a  new 
creative  and  forming  principle,  the  consciousness  of 
His  identity  with  the  essence  of  God  was  yet  "far 
from  being  thoroughly  apprehended  and  presented  in 
conceptions  of  the  understanding."  Dr.  Allen's  thought 
is  opportune  here;  that 

"it  was  necessary  that  the  Incarnation  should  become  the 
full  possession  of  the  Christian  consciousness  before  the  life  of 
the  Spirit  could  be  understood  or  appreciated.  He  was  leading 
humanity  into  all  truth,  but  His  'ways'  had  yet  to  be  disclosed 
more  fully  to  the  reason  in  the  long  and  painful  process  of  expe- 
rience,— the  world  that  then  was  had  to  pass  away,  and  a  new 
world  to  arise,  and  grow,  and  reach  maturity,  before  the  life  of 
God  as  the  Spirit  could  be  revealed  in  humanity  as  its  actual 
possession,  by  which  it  shares  on  earth  in  the  glory  of  the  eternal 
Trinity,  and  moves  forward  to  its  destiny  in  attaining  the  fulness 
of  Christ."  ("  Continuity  of  Christian  Thought,"  p.  93.) 


REVIVAL  OF  INTEREST  29 

The  results  of  deficient  attention  to  the  study  and 
preaching  of  the  Third  Person  in  the  early  Christian 
centuries,  and  in  the  Reformation  period,  have  appeared, 
according  to  Dr.  Dowden  (page  6) : 

> 

"in  dryness  of  spiritual  experience,  a  low  level   of  Christian 

life,  formalism  in  worship,  want  of  discipline  in  the  Church, 
want  of  zeal  in  missionary  enterprise,  indifference  to  social 
improvement,  and  continual  schisms  embittered  by  partisan 
rivalry. 

"Notwithstanding  this  failure,  however,  a  list  has  been  com- 
piled of  .upwards  of  twelve  hundred  books,  or  parts  of  books, 
belonging  to  all  ages  of  the  Church,  and  written  by  authors  of 
widely  divergent  views,  together  constituting  a  library  of  the 
literature  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

"During  the  last  hundred  years  increasing  attention  has  been 
directed  to  the  subject,  and  many  works  by  English  writers  have 
been  issued,  treating  of  one  or  more  of  its  many  aspects.  *  *  * 
Missions  to  the  unevangelized  world  are  being  treated  by  many 
contemporary  writers  as  the  characteristic  outcome  of  Pentecost. 
The  movement  for  the  Deepening  of  Spiritual  Life  devotes  its 
literature  to  the  operation  of  the  Holy  Ghost  upon  the  individual 
soul.  The  literature  of  the  Sacraments,  which  once  took  too 
little  account  of  the  necessary  presence  and  action  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  now  seeks  to  remedy  the  omission.  The  nascent  move- 
ment towards  Home  Reunion  gives  opportunity  for  applying 
the  teaching  of  the  unity  of  the  Spirit,  a  doctrine  powerfully 
inclining  Christian  men  towards  a  restoration  of  the  broken 
unity  of  the  Church." 

A  more  hopeful  sign  of  the  times,  spiritually  speaking, 
a  brighter  harbinger  for  the  twentieth  century  of  the 
Church's  life  in  the  Spirit,  could  hardly  be  named  than 
the  appearance  of  many  treatises,  great  and  small, 
devoted  in  whole,  or  in  part,  to  the  Person  and  Work 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  to  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit  hi  the  indi- 
vidual soul,  and,  perhaps  at  this  time  most  especially, 


30  THE  HOLT  SPIRIT 

to  His  relations  to  the  Church  as  the  Body  of  Christ, 
and  to  its  World-Mission. 

Let  us  recall  again  our  Lord's  word:  "Unto  you  it  is 
given  to  know  the  mystery  (the  secret)  of  the  Kingdom 
of  God."  Shall  we  not  take  Him  at  His  word,  never 
turn  from  any  secret  revealed  to  us,  either  by  Himself, 
or  later  by  His  Spirit?  We  are  made  in  the  likeness  of 
God,  to  apprehend  now,  and  eventually  to  comprehend, 
not  God's  things  only,  but  God.  Of  the  earth  and 
earthy  now,  we  shall  bear  the  image  of  the  heavenly, 
and  understand  all  mysteries.  The  process  has  begun. 
The  pure  in  heart  already  see  and  know  God  in  the 
degree  that  they  are  spiritual,  and  desirous  to  be 
initiated. 

It  is  sin  which  has  separated  man  from  God,  and  the 
knowledge  of  God.  The  Son  of  God  has  brought  the 
possibility  of  fellowship  and  communion,  and  a  cor- 
responding increase  of  knowledge.  Look  at  the  story 
of  Eden  whichever  way  you  will,  as  history  or  a 
parable,  it  is  full  of  truth,  and  we  must  think  of  the 
cherubim  at  the  gate  as  keeping  the  way,  not  only  of 
the  tree  of  life,  but  of  the  tree  of  wisdom  and  under- 
standing; and  before  the  believing  and  pure  their 
flaming  swords  go  down. 

This  is  true  of  the  Kingdom  of  Nature,  which, 
equally  with  the  heavenly  one,  is  a  Kingdom  of  the 
Creator-Spirit.  In  this  natural  and  earthly  kingdom 
we  are  surrounded  by  secrets.  There  lies  a  hidden  and 
at  present  incomprehensible  power  which  we  call  mys- 
tery under  every  truth  of  science  or  philosophy.  The 
wiser  the  scientist  or  philosopher  is,  the  better  he  knows 
it;  and  being  a  Christian  confesses  and  rejoices  in  it. 
Gravitation,  cohesion,  magnetism,  chemical  affinity, 


GIVER  OF  ALL  LIFE  31 

electricity,  are  all  at  bottom  divine  secrets,  and  yet 
secrets  in  a  measure  told,  and  of  vast  practical 
importance. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Spirit  is  no  remote  or  esoteric 
thing,  but  that  wherein  God  touches  man  most  nearly, 
most  familiarly,  in  common  life.  We  can  see  why 
St.  Basil,  fifteen  centuries  ago,  explained  St.  Paul's 
mention  of  the  Spirit  first,  and  then  the  Son  and  then 
the  Father  (1st  Cor.  12  :  6)  as  being  according  to  the 
nature  of  things.  We  come  in  contact  first  with  the 
Distributor,  then  consider  the  Sender,  then  carry  back 
our  thought  to  the  Fount  and  Cause  of  all  good 
things. 

All  good  things,  natural  or  spiritual,  temporal  or 
eternal,  are  created  and  brought  to  us,  and  we  are  created 
to  enjoy  and  use  them,  by  the  Spirit.  "By  the  word 
of  the  Lord  were  the  heavens  made,  and  all  the  host 
of  them  by  the  breath  of  His  mouth."  It  is  the  sending 
forth  of  the  breath  of  God  which  is  the  giving  to  things 
of  the  gift  of  life;  it  is  the  withdrawal  of  that  breath 
which  is  their  annihilation.  This  is  the  teaching  of 
the  Scriptures  about  nature,  and  the  early  Christians 
were  keenly  conscious  of  it.  They  faulted  Origen, 
because  he  seemed  to  exclude  the  Holy  Spirit  from 
nature,  and  limit  His  activity  to  the  Church. 

"Wherever  the  Holy  Spirit  is,"  wrote  Ambrose, 
"there  is  life;  and  wherever  life  is,  there  is  also  the 
Holy  Spirit."  Hardly  any  truth  is  of  greater  practical 
importance,  or  has  a  more  beneficial  influence  upon 
character,  than  this,  that  the  spiritual  world  is  the  real 
and  lasting  world,  and  that  only  in  so  far  as  we  are 
spiritual  are  we  truly  ourselves,  and  fit  for  an  unending 
existence  and  undying  joy.  And  because  God  is  love 


32  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 

and  is  holy,  and  His  Spirit  is  a  Holy  Spirit,  our  spirits 
must  be  holy. 

Our  conflict  is  largely,  chiefly,  a  struggle  with 
spiritual  foes,  with  the  prince  of  the  unseen  "powers  of 
the  air,"  and  we  are  to  conquer  these  with  spiritual 
weapons,  as  Christ  the  Second  Adam  did,  by  the  Holy 
Spirit's  help,  with  His  sword  which  is  the  word  of  God, 
and  by  prayer  in  the  Spirit. 

The  spiritual  life,  then,  is  the  true  and  blessed  life 
for  every  man,  and  nature  being  the  creation  and  the 
daily,  hourly  care  of  the  Spirit,  is  by  all  its  marvellous 
operations,  its  wonderful  unseen  forces,  its  harmony 
and  beauty,  to  remind  us  that  we  are  spirits,  and  help 
us  to  be  spiritual.  One  of  the  most  interesting  and 
suggestive  features  of  Bishop  Whipple's  story  of  his 
life  in  the  Episcopate  consists  in  his  testimony  concern- 
ing the  Indians  (page  34) : 

"  I  have  never  known  of  an  atheist  among  the  North  American 
Indians.  They  believe  unquestioningly  in  a  future  life.  They 
believe  that  everything  in  nature — the  laughing  waterfall,  the 
rock,  the  sky,  the  forest — contains  a  divinity,  and  all  mysteries 
are  accounted  for  by  these  spirits  which  they  call  manidos. 
The  O  jib  ways  are  not  idolaters;  they  never  bow  down  and  wor- 
ship any  created  thing.  They  have  preserved  a  tradition  of  one 
Supreme  God  whom  they  call  'Kitche-manido,' — the  uncreated, 
or  the  kind,  cherishing  Spirit." 

Whence  do  these  people,  and  these  traditions  of 
the  Great  Spirit  come?  Is  it  a  cause  for  wonder  that 
large  numbers  of  them  have  responded  as  quickly  as 
they  have  to  the  Church's  message  of  an  unseen 
Christ, — present  by  His  Spirit, — and  that  a  very  large 
proportion  of  them  have  become  Christians,  not  a 
few  singularly  genuine  and  noble  Christians?  For 


FOUNT  OF  LIFE  ETERNAL  33 

us  all  as  for  them  the  first  word  of  the  Gospel  is  that 
of  our  Lord  to  the  Samaritan  woman,  "God  is  a  Spirit." 
For  us  all  the  powers  and  the  gifts  of  nature  are  meant 
to  be  symbols  of  the  spiritual  life,  just  as  the  Lord 
made  the  water  of  Jacob's  well  to  be  one  forever 
afterwards  for  her:  "Every  one  that  drinketh  of  this 
water  shall  thirst  again;  but  whosoever  drinketh  of 
the  water  that  I  shall  give  him  shall  never  thirst;  but 
the  water  that  I  shall  give  him  shall  become  in  him  a 
well  of  water  springing  up  unto  eternal  life," 


THE  PRAYER  BOOK  AND  CHRISTIAN  YEAR 


He  saith,  the  old  is  better. — Luke  5  :  39. 

The  Prayer  Book  is  not  the  production  of  a  single  author  or  a 
single  age.  Its  stately  fabric,  with  a  general  unity  of  design  ap- 
parent throughout,  bears  the  impress  of  the  thoughts  of  various 
epochs.  The  East  and  the  West  have  conjoined  to  make  it  what 
it  is.  The  well-instructed  sons  of  the  Church  come  to  love  it  as 
the  sons  of  some  old  historic  house  come  to  love  the  ancient 
mansion  in  which  they  were  born  and  where  they  have  grown 
up. — Dowden. 

Next  to  a  sound  rule  of  faith  there  is  nothing  of  so  much 
consequence  as  a  sober  standard  of  feeling  in  matters  of  practical 
religion. — Keble. 

Perhaps  there  is  no  one  book,  except  the  Holy  Bible,  which 
has  been  so  much  written  about  as  the  Prayer  Book  since  the 
Reformation,  and  perhaps  so  much  was  never  written  about  any 
one  book  which  left  so  much  still  unsaid. — J.  H.  Blunt. 


(36) 


CHAPTER  II 
THE  PRAYER  BOOK 

What  is  our  American  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  and 
whence  does  it  come? 

I 

For  a  brief  and  clear  answer  to  these  questions  we 
cannot  do  better  than  turn  first  to  Dr.  J.  F.  Garrison's 
Bohlen  Lectures  of  1887: 

"The  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  and  administration  of  the 
Sacraments;  and  other  Rites  and  Ceremonies  of  The  Church 
is  not  a  collection  of  ordinances  and  rules  for  the  use  of  some  local 
institution  or  temporary  society.  It  is  no  mere  arrangement  of 
devout  and  proper  forms  for  public  worship  and  service.  Its 
sacraments,  ministry,  and  services  did  not  originate  with  the 
founders  of  the  American  Church  in  1789.  They  are  not  the 
product  of  the  Reformation  era,  nor  do  we  receive  them  solely 
as  belonging  to  our  honored  mother,  the  great  Church  of  England. 
On  the  contrary,  they  come  to  us  on  the  authority  of  the  one  Holy 
Catholic  and  Apostolic  Church,  and  we  have  and  use  them 
because  our  Church  is  a  living  member  of  this  same  universal 
body  of  the  Lord.  Hence  it  is  from  the  Church  that  they  derive 
their  origin;  it  is  to  the  Church  we  owe  their  preservation. 
They  were  ordained  under  the  commission  Christ  gave  His 
Church  at  its  foundation,  and  through  and  by  the  Church 
they  have  been  ministered  through  all  the  ages.  As  such  they 
are  received  by  us  and  truly  named  in  our  Prayer  Book,  '  The 
Sacraments,  and  other  Rites  and  Ceremonies  of  The  Church.'  " 
(Page  22.) 

(37) 


38  THE  PRAYER  BOOK 

"When  the  Church  was  first  planted  in  England,"  Dr.  Garri- 
son continues  (page  25) ,  "its  inhabitants  were  the  Britons,  a  Celtic 
people  akin  in  race  to  the  Irish,  the  Scotch,  and  some  of  the  tribes  in 
Gaul.  The  precise  date  of  its  founding  is  not  certain,  but  it  was 
very  early.  And  it  was  known  all  over  Europe  for  many  genera- 
tions before  a  Saxon  or  an  Engle  had  set  foot  in  Britain,  as  a 
Church  distinguished  by  its  missions,  and  its  long  roll  of  saints. 

"The  chief  features  of  our  sacramental  and  other  offices, 
derived  from  the  English  Church,  and  together  with  our  Orders, 
and  the  Holy  Scriptures,  traced  back  through  her  in  a  valid 
and  unbroken  line  to  the  age  and  authority  of  the  Apostles,  have 
been  adapted  to  our  own  needs  by  the  required  modifications, 
and  in  the  primitive  Constitution  of  the  Church  such  had  been 
the  manner  in  each  national  Church.  Such  had  been  the  way 
in  the  West  until  Rome's  power  had  overthrown  the  Church's 
apostolic  organization.  It  is  so  now  in  all  the  Eastern  Churches, 
and  England  has  always  retained  'full  and  complete  power'  over 
the  services  employed. 

"Through  all  the  varied  phases  of  her  history  Briton,  Saxon, 
Norman,  English,  down  to  the  Reformation,  she  never  allowed 
any  other  authority  to  interfere  with  her  offices  of  public  service 
than  that  which  had  been  charged  with  this  high  duty.  It  had 
belonged  of  inherent  right  to  her  own  bishops  and  her  own  con- 
vocations from  the  apostolic  days,  and  it  was  so  preserved  by  her 
through  all  the  ages  after." 

Dr.  Garrison  says  that  Rome's  efforts  to  induce  or 
compel  the  English  people  to  conform  their  liturgies 
to  her  order,  as  the  Western  Continental  Churches  had 
done,  were  unsuccessful  until  the  time  of  Queen  Mary, 
and  even  then  they  were  yielded  to  only  partially  and 
under  protest. 

He  quotes  Archdeacon  Freeman,  saying,  "It  may  be 
affirmed  that  no  Roman  or  Continental  priest  can 
possibly,  for  many  ages  before  the  Reformation,  have 
officiated  at  an  English  altar."  All  these  are  facts 
which  every  English  and  American  Churchman  ought 


IN  THE  CELTIC  AND  SAXON  CHURCHES         39 

to  know.  More  than  interesting,  they  call  for  devout 
thankfulness.  They  give  a  richer  meaning  and 
spiritual  value  to  every  Communion  and  service  of 
Morning  or  Evening  Prayer,  to  every  Consecration, 
and  Ordination,  and  Confirmation  Service.  If  we 
prize  our  national  privileges,  and  acknowledge  the 
responsibilities  of  free  citizenship,  what  of  our  anciently 
derived  citizenship  in  Christ?  If  family  descent  has 
genuine  value  in  our  eyes,  and  "Noblesse  oblige" 
speaks  to  the  heart  and  conscience  of  many  a  sacred 
obligation,  a  social  "calling  wherewith  we  are  called," 
God  helping  us,  to  keep  bright  and  pure  the  name  we 
bear,  what  of  our  historic  lineage  in  the  Church  Uni- 
versal? 

To  look  a  little  farther  here  into  our  Church's 
history,  and  learn  our  exact  relation  to  the  great  Latin 
Church,  to  which  we  owe  many  things, — though 
nothing  in  the  way  of  allegiance, — we  examine  another 
passage  of  Dr.  Garrison's  work.  He  tells  us  that: 

"The  Church  of  the  Britons  belonged  to  a  group  of  Celtic 
Churches,  which,  alike  among  themselves,  differed  in  several 
matters  from  the  usage  of  Rome.  This  Celtic  Church,  Catholic 
in  doctrine  and  practice,  had  a  liturgy  of  its  own,  its  own  trans- 
lation of  the  Bible,  its  own  monastic  rule,  its  own  cyle  for  the 
calculating  of  Easter,  and  presented  both  internal  and  external 
evidence  of  a  complete  autonomy.  When  it  did  come  in  contact, 
which,  however,  rarely  happened  in  those  early  ages,  with  the 
Bishop  of  Rome,  it  allowed  him  a  high  post  of  honor,  though 
second  to  that  of  Jerusalem,  'the  place  of  our  Lord's  Resurrec- 
tion,' but  claimed  to  deal  with  him  from  the  independent  stand- 
point of  an  equal."  (Page  25.) 

It  is  not  difficult  to  comprehend,  that,  when  in  596, 
the  Bishop  of  Rome  sent  Augustine  with  his  forty 


40  THE  PRAYER  BOOK 

companions  to  found  a  Christian  mission  among  the 
fierce  Engles  and  Saxons,  who  had  virtually  extir- 
pated the  old  inhabitants  from  the  East  part  of  the 
island  and  made  a  heathen  country  of  it,  he  was  dis- 
posed to  assume  a  superiority  over  the  Britons  and  their 
Church.  He  knew  little  about  them,  it  appears;  and 
was  he  not  the  representative  of  the  first  Bishop  in  the 
Western  Church?  They  indignantly  refused  to  grant 
such  superiority.  They  insisted  that  their  customs 
were  primitive  and  apostolic,  and  it  appears  that  the 
offices  of  the  Saxon  Church  as  finally  prepared  by 
Augustine  were  shaped  in  many  things  after  those  of 
the  kindred  Celtic  Church  in  Gaul,  and  "from  these 
early  offices,"  says  Dr.  Garrison,  "have  doubtless 
come  most  of  the  distinctive  features  which  marked 
the  services  of  the  English  Church  through  all  the  after- 
periods  of  her  history,  and  gave  them  an  impress  they 
have  kept  even  until  now." 

In  673  the  Celtic  and  Saxon  branches  within  the 
limits  of  the  English  territory  agreed  upon  a  settlement 
of  their  contentions,  and  "the  common  life  of  the  two, 
thus  united,  became  henceforth  the  one  Church  of 
England." 

Dr.  John  Dowden,  Bishop  of  Edinburgh,  in  "The 
Workmanship  of  the  Prayer  Book,"  says  (page  69) : 

"Putting  out  of  view  the  very  large  body  of  material  derived 
from  Holy  Scripture,  which  we  find  in  the  Lessons,  the  liturgical 
Epistles  and  Gospels,  the  Psalms,  the  Biblical  Canticles,  and  the 
Versicles  and  Responses,  etc.,  we  possess  certain  devotional 
elements  whose  histories  extend  back  till  they  are  lost  in  the 
mists  and  shadowy  uncertainties  that  hang  round  much  of 
Christian  life  and  worship  in  the  infancy  and  childhood  of  the 
Church.  A  striking  example  of  these  primitive  elements  is 
found  in  what  is  sometimes  styled  'the  lesser  litany,'  that 


KYRIE.    GLORIA  IN  EXCELSIS  41 

pathetic  cry  of  penitence  and  awe  which  finds  utterance  in  the 
words: 

"'Lord,  have  mercy  upon  us, 

Christ,  have  mercy  upon  us, 
Lord,  have  mercy  upon  us.' 

"It  is  interesting  to  observe  that  the  services  of  the  Latin 
Church,  from  which  we  have  immediately  derived  this  child-like 
utterance  of  the  heart,  have  retained  it  in  its  Greek  form — 
'Kyrie  eleison,  Christe  eleison,  Kyrie  eleison.'  And  it  seems 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  use  of  the  form  in  the  West  dates 
from  the  period  when  the  early  Christian  Church  at  Rome  was 
still,  in  the  main,  a  Greek-speaking  community. 

"From  Rome  and  the  Italian  provinces  the  use  of  the  Kyrie 
spread  (but  not  very  rapidly)  to  the  Church  in  Gaul.  The  use 
of  it  is  enacted  in  the  Council  of  Vaison,  in  529,  and  was  probably 
introduced  about  seventy  years  later  into  Britain  by  St.  Augus- 
tine, of  Canterbury.  But  it  scarcely  needs  external  evidence 
to  its  antiquity.  It  carries  with  it  the  almost  unmistakable 
characteristics  of  primitive  spontaneity.  *  *  *  It  is  as 
natural  as  a  groan  from  a  wounded  creature.  Its  accents  are 
the  accents  of  pain,  or  of  pity;  but  they  are  intermingled  with  a 
tone  of  hope!  They  are  the  tearful  pleadings  of  a  child  with  a 
merciful  Father." 

Of  the  Gloria  in  Excelsis,  Dr.  Gibson,  of  Leeds,  is  quoted  as 
saying,  "It  cannot  be  later  than  the  fourth  century,  while  it 
may  well  be  two  or  three  centuries  earlier";  and  Bishop  Dowden 
adds,  "This  magnificent  hymn,  a  product  of  the  Eastern  Church, 
is  characteristic  of  its  source  in  'the  rushing  storm  of  praise  and 
jubilation  with  which  it  opens.  Even  the  Te  Deum  pales  before 
this  superb  outburst  of  adoring  praise.'" 

The  earliest  known  manuscript  form  of  this  hymn  is  found  in 
the  great  Codex  Alexandrinus — "now  what  is  perhaps  the  chief 
treasure  of  the  British  Museum" — which,  it  is  claimed,  may 
belong  to  the  fourth,  and  cannot  be  later  than  the  fifth,  century. 

These  detached  fragments  of  ancient  services,  coming  to  the 
Western  Church  from  the  East,  and  fitted  into  Western  devo- 
tions, the  Bishop  says,  "One  may  think  of  as  of  those  fragments 
of  rock  left  by  some  ice-floe  on  a  shore  far  from  their  place  of 


42  THE  PRAYER  BOOK 

origin,  and  afterwards  inserted  in  the  structure  of  a  human  dwell- 
ing." It  is  different  with  the  Te  Deum,  of  which  it  may  be  said, 
"with  all  but  absolute  certainty,  that  its  original  language 
was  Latin,  and,  with  a  high  degree  of  probability,  that  the  place 
of  its  origin  was  Southern  Gaul.  As  regards  its  date,  we  cannot 
be  far  wrong  if  we  assign  it  to  some  time  between  the  closing 
years  of  the  fourth  century  and  the  middle  of  the  fifth.  As  we 
now  possess  it,  or  perhaps  in  a  form  with  some  curtailment  of  the 
concluding  verses,  it  has  been  widely  used  in  the  Church  for 
probably  little  short  of  fifteen  hundred  years." 

The  Litany  has  a  long,  complex,  interesting  history, 
into  which  we  cannot  enter.  Its  earliest  known  form, 
as  a  penitential  service,  belongs  to  the  fourth  century. 
It  appears  at  Rome  and  at  Vienne  in  Gaul  in  the  fifth 
century,  when,  as  Dr.  Hart  says  (Book  of  Common 
Prayer,  page  98) ; 

"Men's  hearts  were  failing  them  for  fear  and  for  looking  after 
those  things  which  were  coming  upon  the  earth.  The  barbarians 
were  invading  the  empire,  there  were  earthquakes  and  volcanic 
eruptions,  famine  and  pestilence,  present  danger  and  fear  for  the 
future." 

Among  the  very  oldest  portions  of  the  Prayer  Book 
is  the  Sursum  Corda,  etc.  St.  Cyprian  suffered 
martyrdom  in  A.D.  258.  In  a  little  treatise  of  his  on 
the  Lord's  Prayer  is  found  a  reference  to  the  customary 
use  in  the  Service  of  the  exhortation,  "Lift  up  your 
hearts";  and  of  the  people's  reply,  "We  lift  them  up 
unto  the  Lord." 

A  few  words  respecting  the  antiquity  of  the  Com- 
munion Service.  We  cannot  do  better  than  quote  from 
Dr.  Hart's  account  (on  page  139) : 

"We  pass  on  now  to  the  history  of  that  worship  as  it  has  led 
to  the  forms  of  the  Communion  Office  in  the  English  Book  and 


SURSUM   CORDA.      COMMUNION   OFFICE  43 

in  our  own.  The  earliest  account  of  the  eucharistic  service  which 
has  reached  us  is  contained  in  the  so-called  Apology  (or  Defense) 
for  the  Christians,  written  by  Justin  Martyr  (of  Samaria)  to  the 
Emperor  Antoninus  Pius  in  or  about  the  year  152.  As  he 
describes  it,  the  parts  of  the  service  on  the  day  called  Sunday, 
when  all  who  live  in  cities  or  in  the  country  come  together  to  one 
place,  were  as  follows: 

"1.  The  memoirs  of  the  Apostles  (probably  the  Gospels)  or 
the  writings  of  the  Prophets  (meaning  the  Epistles  of  the  New 
Testament  prophets)  are  read  as  long  as  time  permits. 

"2.  The  President  instructs  and  exhorts  to  the  imitation  of 
these  good  things. 

"3.  All  rise  together  and  offer  prayers. 

"4.  We  salute  one  another  with  a  kiss  [and  alms  are  received 
for  the  poor]. 

"5.  Bread,  and  wine  mingled  with  water  are  brought  to  the 
President. 

"6.  He,  taking  them,  gives  praise  and  glory  to  the  Father  of 
the  universe,  through  the  name  of  the  Son  and  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  and  offers  prayers  and  thanksgivings  at  considerable 
length,  according  to  his  ability. 

"7.  The  people  assent  saying,  'Amen.' 

"8.  They  who  are  called  deacons  distribute  to  the  congrega- 
tion the  elements  which  have  been  blessed  and  carry  a  portion  to 
those  who  are  absent." 

Dr.  Hart,  after  giving  us  this  most  interesting 
record,  "dating  from  within  a  half  century  after  the 
death  of  St.  John,"  comments  thus  upon  it: 

"We  see  here  a  definite  order  of  the  service  while  yet  there  is 
preserved  to  the  officiating  Bishop  or  Priest  presumably  speaking 
under  divine  or  prophetic  guidance,  freedom  of  utterance  in 
prayers  and  thanksgiving.  That  order  has  never  been  changed 
in  any  essential  part  of  its  outline.  *  *  *  The  history  of  the 
service  is  the  history  of  its  modification  along  these  lines,  which 
had  evidently  been  fixed  so  early  that  in  a  half  century  after 
the  death  of  St.  John  they  were  the  established  rule  of  the 
Church." 


44  THE  PRAYER  BOOK 

We  pass  to  the  Collects.  It  can  be  safely  assumed 
that  not  one  in  a  thousand  of  our  worshippers,  even 
when  a  regular  communicant,  has  a  right  idea  of  the 
antiquity  of  these  petitions,  connected,  most  of  them, 
with  the  Eucharist  itself.  When  the  eye  of  a  wor- 
shipper falls  for  the  first  time  upon  the  Prayer  of  St. 
Chrysostom,  he  is  likely  to  say  to  himself ,  "here  we  have 
an  interesting  relic  of  the  early  Christian  times, 
imbedded  in  a  service  comparatively  new."  The 
fact  is,  however,  that  the  venerable  and  beautiful 
petition  dates  probably  from  the  ninth  century,  about 
five  hundred  years  later  than  Chrysostom.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  larger  portion  of  the  eighty-six  Com- 
munion Collects  in  our  book  are  from  three  to  five 
centuries  older  than  the  prayer  referred  to. 

"The  Collects  in  our  Prayer  Book,"  writes  Dr.  Hart  (page 
116),  "are  for  the  greater  part  taken  from  three  ancient  Sacra- 
mentaries,  or  liturgical  service  books,  of  the  Western  Church. 
The  oldest  Sacramentary  bears  the  name  of  Leo  the  Great, 
Bishop  of  Rome  (440-461) ;  the  others  are  called  by  the  names  of 
Gelasius  and  of  Gregory  the  Great.  *  *  *  The  Collects  first 
found  in  the  Sacramentary  of  Leo,  as  it  has  come  to  us,  are  seven: 
those  for  the  third  Sunday  after  Easter,  and  for  the  5th,  9th, 
10th,  12th,  13th,  and  14th  after  Trinity." 

In  the  Sacramentary  of  Gelasius,  bishop  of  Rome 
(492-496),  we  find,  according  to  Dr.  Hart's  estimate, 
twenty-one  of  our  Collects,  among  them  that  for  the 
Fourth  Sunday  in  Advent,  "O  Lord,  raise  up  Thy 
power  and  come  among  us,"  and  the  Christmas  Day 
Prayer  of  the  glorious  Incarnation,  that  in  Him,  born 
as  at  this  time  of  a  pure  Virgin,  we,  being  regenerate 
and  made  children  of  God  by  adoption  and  grace,  may 
by  the  Holy  Spirit  be  daily  renewed.  There  is  the  most 


COLLECTS  OF  THE  LATIN  CHURCH  45 

exquisite  and  touching  Prayer  for  humility,  for  that 
Sunday  before  Easter  when  we  come  in  full  view  of  the 
Cross  and  Him  who  in  tender  love  was  sent  to  suffer 
death  upon  it,  that  we  may  follow  the  example  of 
His  patience  and  also  be  partakers  of  His  resurrection. 
There  we  find  the  second  Good  Friday  Collect,  for 
all  estates  of  men  in  God's  holy  Church,  that  every  one 
may  truly  and  godly  serve  Him;  and  then  the  Easter 
"cry"  of  the  Spirit  in  our  hearts,  that  by  God's  help 
we  may  bring  to  good  effect  those  good  desires  which 
the  Holy  Week  services  and  the  Easter  triumph  have 
through  His  grace  awakened  in  us. 

The  Collects  first  found  in  the  Book  of  Gregory  are 
twenty-nine.  Those  for  St.  Stephen's  and  St.  John 
the  Evangelist's  Days  and  the  Epiphany  are  among 
them,  and  the  Collects  for  the  five  Sundays  after 
Epiphany,  for  Ascension  Day,  and  Whitsunday,  and 
Trinity  Sunday.  Whether  the  noble  prelate,  the 
man  of  ardent  and  self-sacrificing  missionary  spirit, — 
who  actually  started  himself  to  seek  Britain  and  claim 
our  fierce  heathen  forefathers  for  Christ,  but  was 
arrested  and  carried  back  to  Rome  to  be  made  its 
bishop, — composed  these  prayers,  we  do  not  know; 
but  earnest  prayers  they  are,  of  such  spiritual  quality 
that  we  could  easily  believe  that  many  of  them  were 
derived  from  the  time  of  the  Apostles,  or  early  Saints 
like  Ignatius  and  Justin  Martyr  and  Polycarp. 

Bishop  Gregory  I.  died  in  604  A.D.,  and  the  last 
Ecumenical  Council  did  not  take  place  until  680. 
The  long  list  of  corruptions  and  abuses,  those  errors 
and  sins  against  the  Faith  and  simple  Polity  of  the 
Church,  which  have  gradually  created  the  wide  gulf 
now  existing  between  our  own  Church  and  the  Church 


46  THE  PRAYER  BOOK 

of  Rome  had  not  begun  to  be.  Pictures  and  images, 
though  used  in  the  church  toward  the  end  of  the  fourth 
century,  were  not  recognized  as  objects  of  adoration 
before  the  end  of  the  sixth,  and  the  final  triumph  of 
image-worship  came  only  midway  in  the  eighth  century. 
The  papal  exactions  in  England  were  not  made  till  five 
centuries  later,  nor  Rome's  claim  to  be  the  Church,  out- 
side of  which  there  was  salvation  for  no  man,  until 
nearly  six  centuries  later.  The  Inquisition  was  not 
established  before  the  twelfth  century;  the  order  of 
the  Jesuits,  which  now  controls  the  Vatican,  was 
founded  in  the  sixteenth  century,  a  thousand  years 
after  those  beautiful  and  scriptural  Latin  Prayers  were 
composed,  some  of  them  more  beautiful  and  more 
succinct  and  forceful  in  the  Latin  than  they  are  now 
in  the  English. 

That  the  dogma  of  the  Immaculate  Conception  of 
the  Virgin,  and  that  of  the  Infallibility  of  the  Pope,  as 
being  the  Vicar  of  Christ  in  His  Church  universal,  were 
not  yet  dreamed  of,  goes  without  saying;  nor  had  that 
great  loss  and  injury  inflicted  upon  the  laity  in  the 
withdrawal  of  the  cup  from  them  in  the  Eucharist 
entered  yet  into  the  heart  or  the  imagination  of  the 
Latin  curia. 

II 

REFORMATION  PERIOD 

It  is  not  my  purpose  in  this  volume  to  do  more  than 
touch  upon  certain  essential  features  of  the  Prayer 
Book  and  its  long  history,  and  thought  shall  now  be 
briefly  given  to  what  was  done  in  England  in  the 
sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  to  restore  the 


IN  THE  REFORMATION  PERIOD  47 

ancient  services.  These,  as  rendered  catholic  and  pure 
again,  were  taken  over  and  adapted  to  the  needs  of 
the  American  Church  in  1789. 

"The  leaders  of  the  English  Reformation,"  says  Dr.  Garrison 
(page  86),  "next  to  their  opposition  to  the  Papacy,  directed  their 
efforts  chiefly  against  the  mediaeval  conceptions  of  the  Eucharist, 
and  the  practical  errors  and  evils  which  they  regarded  as  essential 
parts  of  the  doctrine  as  it  was  then  accepted.  The  overweening 
assumption  of  the  priesthood  as  the  disposers,  through  masses 
and  absolutions,  of  man's  future  destiny  and  present  hope,  the 
mechanical  conceptions  and  uses  of  the  Sacrament  thus  induced 
and  fostered  upon  every  hand,  the  palsying  idea  of  religion  as 
chiefly  a  matter  of  ceremonial  and  usages  and  official  rites, 
and  the  innumerable  superstitions  and  corruptions  of  the  truth, 
which,  in  the  course  of  centuries,  had  gathered  necessarily  around 
theories  so  little  spiritual  in  their  character,  and  seemingly  so 
material  in  both  their  means  and  ends,  these  all  were  por- 
tions of  the  same  one  system,  and  neither  in  its  principles  nor 
its  practices  had  they  any  Scriptural  warrant  or  primitive 
authority. 

"As  the  theology  which  had  thus  become  supreme  in  Western 
Europe,  and  the  evil  results  we  have  been  tracing,  were  every- 
where connected  with  a  loss  of  that  spiritual  conception  of  the 
Eucharist  which  had  been  presented  by  our  Lord,  and  embodied 
in  the  early  liturgies,  it  is  evident  that  the  remedy  was  to  be  found 
in  a  return  to  the  essentials  of  these  ancient  offices  and  the 
Scriptural  truths  which  were  inculcated  by  them. 

"Indeed,  these  primitive  services  were  from  their  authors  and 
the  conditions  of  their  origin  the  highest  and  best  expression 
outside  the  Bible,  of  the  sacred  verities  with  which  they  were 
concerned,  and  were  in  fact  the  forms  appointed  by  the  Apostolic 
founders  of  the  Church  to  be  for  its  continual  guidance,  pattern, 
and  instruction,  till  the  end  of  tune. 

"This  was  the  fundamental  principle  on  which  the  English 
reformers  acted,  and  which  the  Church  of  England  has  em- 
bodied in  her  'Order  for  the  Administration  of  the  Lord's  Supper 
or  the  Holy  Communion.'  It  is  this  same  Liturgy  in  its  general 
features  that  we  have,  We  possess  accordingly  the  restoration 


48  THE  PRAYER  BOOK 

of  all" that  is  essential  both  in  form  and  doctrine,  of  the  original 
and  catholic  conception  of  the  Eucharist." 

Bishop  Dowden,  writing  of  the  same  period,  says 
(page  48):  "It  was  a  matter  of  common  knowledge 
among  theologians,  that  the  Greek  Church  made  the 
express  Invocation  of  the  Holy  Spirit  an  essential  in 
the  consecration  of  the  Eucharist."  He  refers  to 
Cranmer's  effort  to  incorporate  a  similar  Invocation 
in  the  English  service,  and  to  the  fact  that  Bishop 
Seabury,  receiving  the  form  from  the  Scottish  Church, 
put  it  forth  for  the  Diocese  of  Connecticut  in  1786,  and 
later  the  whole  Church  of  the  United  States  adopted 
it  in  substance.  He  quotes  the  part  of  our  service 
containing,  "To bless  and  sanctify,  with  thy  Word  and 
Holy  Spirit,  these  thy  gifts  and  creatures  of  bread  and 
wine,"  familiar  to  every  communicant  of  the  American 
Church,  and  adds:  "This  beautiful  form  is  used 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  United 
States.  Thus  the  quiet  and  scholarly  studies  of  Arch- 
bishop Cranmer  have  at  length  borne  most  rich  and 
plentiful  fruit." 

He  says  further: 

"In  these  days,  when  approaches  have  been  made  towards 
the  Holy  Orthodox  Church  of  the  East,  it  is  a  matter  of  no  small 
importance  that  the  Anglican  Communions  possess  Liturgies  like 
the  Scottish  and  American,  in  which  the  express  Invocation  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  has  a  place." 

Dr.  Garrison  (page  58)  lays  great  weight  on  this 
element  in  our  American  service  as  having  been  promi- 
nent in  the  primitive  liturgies. 

"In  all  the  primitive  liturgies  which  we  have  in  their  original 
Greek,  the  pervading  thought  and  life  of  the  whole  service  was 


RESTORATION  AND  ENRICHMENT  49 

its  dependence  on   the  presence  and  operation  of  the  Holy 
Ghost." 

His  final  words  are  of  great  force, — and  to  us  who 
have  been  dwelling,  in  the  preceding  essay  on  the 
Spirit,  upon  His  place  and  part  alike  in  the  world  of 
nature  and  of  grace  as  the  Lord,  and  Giver  of  life,  they 
have  the  greater  importance: 

"Our  Liturgy  has  thus  in  all  its  important  elements  preserved 
the  forms  of  the  early  Church  and  of  Apostolic  origin.  *  *  * 
With  them  it  places  the  essence  of  the  Christian  life,  and  the 
personal  value  of  every  Sacrament  and  ordinance  of  the  Church, 
in  the  operation  and  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  All  the  benefits 
which  are  promised  are  spiritual;  the  means  are  effectual  only 
when  blessed  by  the  Spirit,  and  in  our  Holy  Communion,  as  in 
them,  the  blessing  sought,  and  if  earnestly  sought  obtained,  is 
the  two-fold  communion,  on  the  one  hand  of  our  soul  with 
Christ,  in  which  we  are  'made  one  with  Him  and  He  one  with 
us,'  and  on  the  other  of  our  hearts  and  lives  in  spiritual  unity 
with  'the  blessed  company  of  all  faithful  people,'  with  whom  we 
are  thus  knit  together  as  one  living  body  with  Him"  (page  92). 

As  regards  Morning  and  Evening  Prayer,  all  that 
needs  to  be  done  here  is  to  refer  to  the  restoration  of 
the  Psalter  in  its  entirety,  and  of  the  Lessons,  to  this 
extent  that  substantially  the  whole  of  the  Scriptures 
are  read  in  the  course  of  the  year.  The  lessons  of  the 
old  service-books  had  been  taken,  some  from  the 
Bible,  some  from  legends  of  the  Saints,  some  from  the 
writings  of  the  Fathers.  They  were  now  confined 
once  more  to  the  Holy  Scriptures,  including  certain 
carefully  selected  parts  of  the  deutero-canonical  books 
of  the  Old  Testament. 

In  respect  to  Collects  and  other  prayers,  admirable 
work  was  done. 


50  THE  PRAYER  BOOK 

"The  artistic  merits  and  literary  beauty,  no  less  than  the 
devotional  excellence  of  the  Collects  of  the  English  Prayer 
Book,"  Bishop  Dowden  writes  (page  119),  "have  been  acknowl- 
edged with  a  remarkable  fulness  of  testimony  from  various 
quarters.  The  great  majority  of  these  forms  are  either  close 
translations,  or,  more  commonly,  somewhat  amplified  para- 
phrases of  Latin  Collects  which  can  be  traced  to  authorized  devo- 
tions of  the  ancient  Church  of  Rome.  Many  of  them  belong  to 
the  sixth,  and  some  to  the  fifth  century,  or  may  even  mount 
higher  still." 

As  to  Cranmer's  part,  Dr.  Garrison  speaks  (page 
156)  of  the  services  being  "rendered  into  that  devo- 
tional English  of  which  Cranmer,  beyond  all  men  of 
his  own,  or  we  may  say,  of  any  age,  was  the  most 
consummate  master."  We  are  told  that  the  purpose 
was  to  "discharge  the  innovations  of  later  ages,  and 
bring  things  up  to  the  primitive  standard,"  and  so  the 
Church  and  people  accepted  them. 

In  regard  to  the  Litany,  there  were  much  to  tell; 
we  must  be  content  with  quoting  Bishop  Dowden's 
remark  (page  156)  that  it  is  worth  observing  that 
Cranmer's  national  sentiments  did  not  prevent  him 
from  resorting  to  what  seemed  of  value  in  the  Roman, 
Lutheran,  and  Greek  sources,  as  well  as  in  the  Sarum, 
York,  and  Hereford  uses.  The  work  is,  on  the 
whole,  executed  with  masterly  skill,  and  in  a 
spirit  that  is  eclectic  and  marked  by  a  wise  liberty 
of  choice. 

Bishop  Dowden  has  words  of  warm  commendation 
for  the  Revisers  of  1661.  He  says  that  they,  and 
Bishop  Cosin  in  particular,  ought  not  to  be  forgotten. 
They  have  left  examples  of  entirely  original  work 
which  may  well  stand  comparison  with  the  very  best 
of  the  earlier  Collects  (page  132) : 


CBANMER.    COVERDALE'S  BIBLE  51 

"Let  the  reader  take  his  Prayer  Book  and  read  carefully  the 
Collect  for  Easter  Eve,  and  I  think  he  will  acknowledge  that, 
judging  by  the  standard  of  literary  feeling  and  liturgical  fitness, 
we  have  here  a  very  delicate  and  exquisite  piece  of  skilful  work- 
manship." 

This  Collect  as  well  as  the  "beautiful  Collects"  for 
the  Third  Sunday  in  Advent,  the  Sixth  after  Epiphany, 
and  the  First  after  Easter,  we  probably  owe  to  Bishop 
Cosin. 

These  various  points  will  be  referred  to  again  in  a 
different  connection  in  the  next  chapter,  but  regarding 
them  simply  as  brought  before  us  by  Dr.  Garrison  and 
Bishop  Dowden,  they  give  cause  for  deep  thankfulness. 
It  means  much  to  us  to  possess  the  sense  of  the  origi- 
nal petition  in  dignified  and  harmonious  English. 
"  The  diction  of  our  Book  of  Common  Prayer,"  wrote 
Macaulay,  "  has  directly  or  indirectly  contributed  to 
form  the  diction  of  almost  every  great  English  writer.  It 
has  extorted  the  admiration  of  the  most  accomplished 
infidels,  and  the  most  accomplished  nonconformists. 

"  It  enhances  our  gratitude  to  reflect  on  the  difficulties  encoun- 
tered. Of  the  thousands  who  thankfully  use  the  services  few 
realize  that  some  of  the  more  familiar  formulas,  which  now  run 
glibly  over  the  tongue,  were  reached  only  after  many  tentative 
efforts.  A  sacred  diction  had  to  a  large  extent  to  be  created. 
In  the  main  it  is  to  Coverdale's  Bible  and  the  Prayer  Books  of 
Cranmer  and  his  colleagues  that  we  are  indebted  for  the  language, 
so  apt,  so  stately,  so  tender  and  winning  in  which  religious 
thought  and  feeling  has  been  wont  to  find  utterance  for  the  last 
three  hundred  and  fifty  years."  (See  Dowden,  pages  175-189.) 

Remarkable,  too,  is  the  fact  that  the  great  essential 
motives  of  the  Services  have  been  little  affected  by  the 
transitory  animosities  of  party. 


52  THE  CHRISTIAN  YEAR 


THE  CHRISTIAN  YEAR 

"Were  the  Christian  year  only  now  to  be  invented,  the  author 
of  it  would  be  compared  with  Luther  or  Wesley  as  one  of  the 
Church's  greatest  benefactors;  and  not  without  reason.  Look  at 
this  majestic  system  of  claiming  all  time  for  Jesus  Christ,  and 
filling  every  day  in  every  year  with  His  Name  and  His  Worship! 
*  *  *  Yet,  because  all  this  is  but  part  of  our  inestimable 
inheritance  as  Churchmen,  we  hardly  think  of  it  as,  even  on 
popular  grounds,  a  conclusive  reason  for  being  what  we  are, 
and  as  furnishing  an  irresistible  argument '"against  those  who 
oppose  themselves.  *  *  *  God  has  made  it  the  distinction 
of  the  Anglican  Church  in  divers  parts  of  the  world,  to  be 
almost  the  only  witness  for  that  system  in  His  worship,  in  the 
great  Congregation,  which  the  Holy  Scriptures  show  to  have 
originated  with  the  Divine  Wisdom."  (Bishop  Coxe,  "  Thoughts 
on  the  Services,"  page  16.) 

It  is  because  of  the  profound  connection  between 
nature  and  man,  and  the  Spirit's  relation  to  both,  and 
because  the  life  of  nature  and  the  "operations"  in 
the  realm  of  grace  are  operations  of  the  self-same 
Spirit,  that  those  analogies  between  the  two,  of  which 
our  Lord  made  abundant  use  in  His  teaching,  and  St. 
James,  and  then  St.  Paul,  made  use  after  Him,  are 
true  and  precious  analogies.  Now  it  is  upon  these 
same  living  connections  and  resemblances  that  the 
system  of  the  ancient  religious  festivals  seems  to  have 
been  based,  and  the  year  of  Christ,  so  dear  and  helpful 
now  to  the  Church  Universal,  is  in  like  manner  founded. 
Sun,  moon,  and  stars,  trees  and  flowers,  seed-time  and 
harvest,  and  man,  as  created  and  as  redeemed  from 
sin  and  death  in  the  Son  of  Man,  are  all  bound  up 
together. 

We  read  in  Genesis,  "And  God  said,  Let  there  be 


RELATION  TO  THE  INCARNATION  53 

lights  in  the  firmament  of  heaven  to  divide  the  day  from 
the  night;  and  let  them  be  for  signs  and  for  seasons 
and  for  days  and  for  years."  It  was  all  in  relation  to 
man's  life;  and  centuries  later,  when  mankind  had 
multiplied  and  replenished  the  earth,  and  when,  by 
the  Spirit's  influence,  religious  worship  and  customs 
had  developed  in  many  lands,  these  words  were 
written,  in  Ecclesiasticus  (33 :  7,  8,  9) : 

"Why  doth  one  day  excel  another,  when  as  all  the  light  of 
every  day  in  the  year  is  of  the  sun?  By  the  knowledge  of  the 
Lord  they  were  distinguished;  and  he  altered  (arranged)  seasons 
and  feasts.  Some  of  them  hath  he  made  high  days,  and  hal- 
lowed them,  and  some  of  them  hath  he  made  ordinary  days." 

This  was  true  of  the  Sabbath,  and  it  is  true  now  of 
Sunday  as  the  Day  of  our  Lord's  resurrection.  Upon 
it  the  Spirit  writes,  as  it  were,  His  signature  of  divine 
ownership,  extending  to  all  the  days;  as  George 
Herbert  says: 

"The  week  were  dark,  but  for  thy  light; 
Thy  torch  doth  show  the  way"; 

and  the  principle  has  a  far  wider  and  more  profoundly 
instructive  exemplification  in  the  system  of  religious 
celebrations  which  we  find  pervading  the  entire  Bible. 
With  these  the  whole  Truth  of  the  Incarnation  is 
bound  up. 

We  have  to  begin  by  noting  the  agricultural,  or 
harvest-home,  element  which  underlies  all  three  great 
festivals,  and,  indeed, — because  the  fact  of  Creation  and 
Re-creation  or  refreshment,  go  together, — underlies 
the  Sabbath,  and  the  Lord's  Day  also.  From  the  time 
when  Cain  and  Abel  are  described  as  bringing  their 


54  THE  CHRISTIAN  YEAR 

offerings  of  "the  fruits  of  the  ground"  and  "firstlings 
of  the  flock"  to  God,  down  through  the  ages,  this 
element  of  thankfulness  to  Almighty  God  for  life  is 
ever  present.  Time  would  fail  us  to  relate  its  history, 
running  its  roots  as  it  does  far  back  of  Jewish  annals 
into  the  early  history  of  mankind.  The  harvest-home 
factor  is  present  in  the  Passover,  in  Pentecost,  in  the 
Feast  of  Tabernacles.  It  is  present  in  the  shew  bread, 
constantly  renewed  in  the  Temple.  Always  it  meant, 
God  is  our  Life. 

It  meant,  also, — and  that  even  in  ancient  heathen 
feasts, — not  merely  dependence  upon  God,  or  the 
"gods  many,"  and  grateful  acknowledgment  of  it, — 
but  fellowship  with  the  divine.  Sometimes  there  was 
only  the  thought  of  God  feeding  upon  the  offerings 
brought  to  Him,  but  this  was  a  perversion  of  the 
original  conception  of  a  feasting  with  God  at  a  table. 
Fellowship  with  the  gods, — in  Israel  fellowship  and 
communion  with  the  One  God,  who  had  actually  called 
Himself  a  Father  to  the  people  He  had  chosen, — this 
was  the  thought. 

This  Father-Creator  was  not  only  their  Life,  but 
their  Providence,  and  again  their  Deliverer  from 
Egyptian  and  from  Babylonian  bondage.  He  was  a 
God  of  mercy  and  forgiveness.  Together  with  the 
offerings  of  Bread  and  Wine  went  those  of  slain 
Lambs.  These  signified  contrition  for  sin  on  man's  part, 
and  an  ever-renewed  welcome  with  a  God  of  Holiness 
in  the  solemn  sacrifice.  For  sin  causes,  sin  is,  separa- 
tion. And  separating  men  from  God  it  separates  them 
from  each  other,  inevitably.  Accordingly,  with  the 
thought  of  life  from  God  and  dependence  on  God  in 
every  way,  redemption  and  forgiveness  and  communion 


THE  LYRIC  OF  ISRAEL  55 

restored  in  those  holy  feasts,  there  went  the  other 
thought  of  union  and  harmony  among  themselves. 
The  three  festivals  were  plainly  intended  to  be  a  mighty 
social  power,  and  a  source  of  social  happiness.  The 
family  and  tribal  life  was  to  be  strengthened  and 
patriotism  deepened.  Was  not  this  one  reason  of  the 
divine  promise  that  Jehovah  would  protect  their  homes 
while  the  men  of  Israel  were  absent,  having  gone  up 
to  the  appointed  feasts  in  the  holy  city? 

The  Lyric  of  Israel  was  immensely  enriched  by  the 
religious,  social,  and  national  feelings  awakened  in 
these  holy  feasts.  The  songs  composed  for  the  pur- 
pose and  sung  by  Passover  pilgrims,  and  those  who  went 
up  to  Pentecost,  and  to  the  autumn  feast  of  Taber- 
nacles, or  Booths  erected  in  the  vineyards, — sung  as 
the  people  passed  in  bands  along  the  roads,  came  in 
sight  of  the  hills  round  about  Jerusalem  and  in  view  of 
the  beautiful  Temple  itself,  or  entered  its  gates, — we 
know  them  well.  "Behold,  now,  praise  the  Lord;  all 
ye  servants  of  the  Lord  " ;  "Behold,  how  good  and  joyful 
a  thing  it  is  to  dwell  together  in  unity;  I  will  lift  up 
mine  eyes  unto  the  hills  from  whence  cometh  my  help; 
I  was  glad  when  they  said  unto  me,  'We  will  go  into  the 
house  of  the  Lord';  Lift  up  your  heads,  O  ye  gates." 
We  chant  or  read  them  in  the  wider,  more  privileged 
and  more  spiritual  Church  of  the  Ascended  and 
Enthroned  Son  of  Man,  but  scarcely  realize  the  glory 
of  their  past  associations,  or  the  warm,  rich  light  they 
can  throw  now  upon  the  spiritual  meaning  and  purpose 
of  the  Church  Universal,  the  eternal  Temple  and 
Home  of  a  humanity  redeemed  and  re-united  in  Christ! 

We  appreciate  too  little  their  relation  to  our  Lord 
Himself,  as  having  partaken  of  our  flesh  and  blood,  and 


56  THE  CHRISTIAN  YEAR 

more  than  that  taken  "hold  of  the  seed  of  Abraham" 
(Hob.  2  :  16).  Being  "by  the  operation  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,"  as  the  Christmas-day  Preface  says,  "made 
very  man,  of  the  substance  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  his 
mother,"  we  believe,  and  see  how  it  could  be  true,  that 
He  was  "tempted  in  all  points  like  as  we  are"  (Heb. 
4  :  15),  and  is  now  a  "merciful  and  faithful  high  priest" 
to  us,  in  the  things  pertaining  to  an  infinitely  holy 
God  (Heb.  2  :  17).  Yet  do  we  but  feebly  apprehend 
that  such  a  complete  self-identification  with  us  involved 
an  entering  of  Christ  as  a  child  and  a  man  into  the 
entire  religious  and  social  life  of  the  chosen  people  from 
which  He  sprang.  The  Son  of  God  became  a  true 
child  of  nature,  and  dependent  as  all  men  are  on  the 
Spirit  who  gives  Life  and  nourishes  it,  in  the  realm 
of  nature.  As  Man  He  drew  in  that  life  like  ourselves. 

He  had  entered  into  relations  of  time  and  place. 
Sunrise  and  sunset,  the  phases  of  the  moon,  seed-time 
and  harvest  meant  the  same  to  Him  that  they  did  to 
every  pious  Israelite,  in  truth  much  more,  because 
He  was  "without  sin,"  He  was  ever  thinking  gratefully 
of  the  Father  from  whom  all  good  things  came.  As 
He  grew  alike  in  wisdom  and  in  stature,  and  was 
permitted  to  go  up  to  the  solemn  feasts  in  Jerusalem, 
He  entered  more  deeply  than  could  His  pious  kinsfolk 
and  acquaintance  into  the  manifold  providential  mean- 
ings of  them,  and  loved  the  Songs  of  Zion  with  a  love 
which  they  must  have  observed,  and  wonderingly 
commented  upon. 

However,  whenever,  the  fact  of  His  own  personal 
relation  to  those  joyous  prophetic  solemnities  was 
borne  in  upon  His  human  spirit,  as  being  Himself  the 
long-expected  Messiah,  they  became  yet  more  signifi- 


His  FATHER'S  THINGS  57 

cant,  and  more  dear.  Already  at  the  age  of  twelve  we 
seem  to  see  signs  of  this  in  His  intense  longing  to  linger 
in  the  precincts  of  the  Temple,  to  listen  to  the  doctors, 
to  ask  them  questions  about  His  "Father's  Things." 
When  His  hour  had  come  to  teach  the  sacred  truths  of 
the  Kingdom,  the  great  Festivals  not  only  afforded 
special  opportunity  for  instructing  vast  numbers  at 
once;  they  afforded  types  and  suggestions  of  the 
fundamental  truths  themselves.  It  was  at  the  Feast 
of  Tabernacles  that  the  libation  of  water  took  place, — 
brought  from  the  fountain  of  Siloam  in  a  golden 
pitcher, — one  of  the  most  notable  Messianic  types  in  the 
national  history;  and  on  the  last,  the  great  day  of  the 
feast,  Christ  applied  it  to  Himself.  "If  any  man 
thirst,"  He  cried  aloud,  "let  him  come  unto  me  and 
drink"  (John  7  :  37).  The  rivers  of  living  water  which, 
beside  slaking  the  thirst  of  believers  in  Him,  would 
flow  from  them  and  refresh  the  souls  of  others  also, 
He  expressly  pointed  out,  would  be  received  from  the 
Holy  Spirit. 

The  harvest-home  thought,  underlying  all  three  holy 
feasts,  was  perhaps  especially  prominent  in  the  Pass- 
over, as  being  the  Spring  festival,  when  the  first  fruits 
of  wheat  and  barley,  of  spelt  and  oats  and  rye,  were 
offered.  And  was  it  not  a  great  company  of  Passover 
pilgrims  on  their  way  to  Jerusalem  whom  one  day 
the  Lord  fed  with  the  few  loaves,  and  the  next  day 
taught  the  Truth  that  He  was  the  true  Life  of  the 
World?  (John  6.)  In  a  most  important  sense  it  was 
no  new  truth  to  them.  If  they  but  remembered  it, 
the  Passover  itself  taught  that  God  was  their  Bread, 
their  Life.  He  might  have  put  a  question  to  them 
similar  to  the  one  He  asked  Nicodemus,  "Are  ye 


58  THE  CHRISTIAN  YEAR 

Israelites,  going  up  to  the  Passover,  and  understand 
not  to  what  these  my  words  point?"  What  was  new 
was  that  He  was  the  very  Son  of  God,  and  about  to 
become  by  His  Sacrifice  the  Life,  not  of  Israel  only, 
but  of  a  redeemed  world. 

The  second  great  thought  in  the  Passover  was  that  of 
deliverance  out  of  bondage;  and  Christ,  by  His  death 
to  sin,  and  His  resurrection,  would  be  the  Author  of  a 
far  greater  deliverance  for  Israel  and  for  our  entire 
race.  This  too  some  who  heard  Him  were  sufficiently 
"masters  in  Israel"  and  had  learned  already  enough  from 
Christ,  or  about  Him,  to  lay  hold  of,  in  part  at  least; 
and  we  can  apprehend  it  richly  now,  by  His  Spirit. 
We  need  not  to  dwell  on  it.  There  are,  however,  other 
elements  of  truth  in  the  Passover,  and  in  the  Com- 
munion Service  as  instituted  in  connection  with  the 
Paschal  Supper  particularly,  which  even  Prayer  Book 
Christians  are  likely  to  overlook.  These  are  the  ele- 
ments of  fellowship  and  union,  of  social  sympathy, 
of  social  harmony  and  joy.  Atonement  for  sin  and 
fellowship  restored,  and  ever  again  renewed,  with  God, 
was  the  condition  and  basis  of  fellowship  among  men. 
Such  was  the  ideal  of  that  ancient  system  as  planned 
by  the  Spirit  of  God  to  prepare  the  way  in  one  small 
nation  for  Him  who  should  be  the  Saviour  and  King 
of  an  entire  race  restored  and  re-united.  Of  course 
the  ideal,  like  all  divine  ideals,  was  by  many  not 
realized  and  lived  up  to.  Blind  to  the  spiritual  beauty 
of  it,  and  cold  at  heart,  these  forsook  the  assembling 
of  themselves  together,  as  is  the  manner  of  many 
Christians  now.  But  happy  the  bands  of  pilgrims 
who,  with  faithful  regularity,  trod  the  paths  that  led 
Zionward. 


UNIVERSAL  HUMAN  FELLOWSHIP  59 

The  Christian  Year  needs  to  be  preached  more  than 
it  is,  and  on  broad  lines.  Historic  sense,  religiously 
speaking,  is  closely  akin  to  Church  sense,  philosophic 
sense,  yes,  common  sense,  if  by  this  last  we  mean  a 
sense  of  what  humanity  most  craves  and  needs.  What 
it  needs  is  just  that  which  the  Bible,  and  in  those  three 
great  festivals  most  remarkably,  exhibits,  God  and 
Man  reconciled,  and  thereby  the  wide  world  of  man- 
kind drawn  together  in  love  and  peace,  in  friendship 
and  sympathy. 

It  were  next  to  a  waste  of  time  to  speak  at  any 
length  of  what  Christmas  alone  is  now  accomplishing 
in  the  way  of  restoring  the  lost  unity  among  Christians 
of  every  name.  It  seems  impossible  to  believe  that 
within  two  hundred  years  a  man  was  put  in  the  stocks 
in  the  State  of  Maine  for  celebrating  the  Nativity  of  our 
Lord  on  the  25th  of  December.  From  the  beginning  of 
Advent, — which,  as  Bishop  Coxe  writes,  "answers  to 
that  Day  in  the  Mosaic  year,"  when  "the  Trumpet 
was  blown  in  Zion,"  preparatory  to  the  Feast  of  Taber- 
nacles,— not  the  Church  merely,  but  all  Christians,  if 
not  all  men  and  children,  are  thinking  of  Christmas. 
"All  men  are  children"  when  that  Day  comes,  and 
nearly  all  are  friends.  The  heart  of  old  Scrooge  himself 
melts. 

Still  more  profoundly,  more  spiritually,  is  it  true  that 
Lent  and  Holy  Week,  followed  as  they  immediately  are 
by  the  joyful  Feast  of  Christ's  Resurrection,  are 
fostering — if  one  may  dare  coin  the  word — a  spirit  of 
mankindness.  It  becomes  each  year  more  strikingly 
apparent.  "I,  if  I  be  lifted  up  from  (or  out  of)  the 
earth," — ancl  there  appears  to  be  a  reference  alike  to 
His  Death  and  His  Resurrection, — "will  draw  all  men 


60  THE  CHRISTIAN  YEAR 

unto  me"  (John  12  :  32).  Good  Friday  and  Easter, 
bound  together  as  one,  have  this  result,  and  by  drawing 
us  all  to  our  Lord,  they  tend  more  and  more  to  unite 
Christians  in  a  world-wide  brotherhood.  Thank  God 
for  this  benefit,  through  the  increasing  observance  of  the 
Christian  Year. 

We  cannot  but  think  that  the  Church  Year  is  divinely 
intended  to  bring  home  to  us  more  effectually  the  truth 
of  our  Lord's  sacred  humanity  and  the  reality  of  His 
work  and  suffering  on  our  behalf.  George  Herbert's 
lines  regarding  Lent, 

"Who  goeth  in  the  way  which  Christ  hath  gone 
Is  much  more  sure  to  meet  with  Him,  than  one 
That  travelleth  by-ways," 

are  true  as  applied  to  the  entire  first  half  of  the  Year. 
We  are  kept  near  to  the  Incarnate  from  Advent  to 
Ascension.  The  Epiphany  season,  and  Lent  with  it, 
are  as  truly  a  long  epiphany  of  Christ's  Manhood  as  they 
are  of  His  Divinity.  Taught  to  pray  that  we  may 
after  this  life  "have  the  fruition  of  His  glorious  God- 
head," we  learn  each  week  better,  that  He  has  become 
one  with  us  humanly.  He  will  call  us  brethren  forever. 
He  conquers  temptation  and  death  itself  in  our  nature, 
and  the  heavenly  "fruition"  is  coming  through  our 
union  with  His  humanity  glorified  in  that  human 
victory,  and  on  account  of  it.  It  even  appears  that 
our  future  vision  of  God,  and  communion  with 
Him,  will  be  a  vision  and  communion  mediated,  so  to 
say,  by  the  present  transfigured  humanity  of  the 
eternal  Son. 

How  precious,  in  view  of  all  this,  the  weeks  which 
bring  before  us  the  infancy,  the  childhood,  and,  by 


FRUITION  OP  CHRIST'S  MANHOOD  61 

suggestion  and  inference,  the  entire  long,  quiet,  prep- 
aration of  the  Lord  for  His  sacred  Ministry!  We 
behold  Him  increasing  in  wisdom  as  truly  as  in  stature, 
and  in  favor  alike  with  God  and  man.  The  human 
will  joined  with  the  eternal  divine  Will  in  a  wonderful 
union  becomes  ever  stronger  to  meet  temptation, 
through  the  Spirit,  given  to  Him  without  measure. 
His  obedience  is  an  ever  riper  obedience,  made  perfect, 
as  the  Scripture  says,  "through  suffering."  Always 
the  beloved  Son,  always  pleasing  to  the  Father,  His 
filial  life  is  ever  fuller,  richer  and  more  acceptable  as  a 
human  offering.  Every  hour  of  the  Redeemer's  life  in 
the  flesh  is  part  of  His  atoning  work,  rendering  our 
humanity  each  moment  more  thoroughly  at-one  with 
God.  For  a  work  it  is.  When  He  says,  "the  Father 
worketh  hitherto,  and  I  work"  (John  5  :  17),  there  is 
reason  to  think  first  and  most  of  all  of  the  inward 
labor  and  conflict,  the  tremendous  work  going  on  in 
the  will  and  heart  of  our  Lord,  and  becoming  at 
moments, — especially  at  the  last, — intense  beyond  the 
capacity  of  the  most  earnest  Christian  to  conceive  it. 
So  it  is  that  He  becomes  more  to  us  than  the 
"Strong  Son  of  God,"  even  the  Strong  Son  of  Man, 
an  unfailing  source  of  moral  and  spiritual  strength  for 
our  race.  The  power  is,  in  the  thought  of  Bishop 
Weston  ("The  One  Christ,"  page  241), 

"that  of  the  Incarnate  Son  Himself,  working  with  and  through 
the  Spirit,  in  two-fold  relationship  with  Him,  but  always  in  the 
measure  in  which  manhood  was  able  to  co-operate  with  divine 
power.  He  becomes  strong,  as  the  first  Adam  was  intended  to 
become  and  failed  to  do,  in  and  through  His  temptations,  becomes 
at  last  incapable  of  being  tempted,  as  the  first  Adam  might  have 
done,  and  thus  wins  the  glorious  privilege  of  being  our  Second 
Adam.  It  is  not  primarily  for  our  example.  It  is  the  great 


62  THE  CHRISTIAN  YEAR 

battle  of  God  for  our  souls,  in  which  the  weapons  are  our 
human  faculties,  which  are  Satan's  handles,  but  the  power  with 
which  the  Victor  wields  the  weapons  is  divine.  Therefore 
it  is,  that  He  is  able  to  succor  all  who  come  to  Him  for  help" 
(page  219). 

It  is  not  consonant  with  the  purpose  of  this  chapter 
to  enter  more  fully  into  the  details  of  this,  the  most 
decisive  of  all  the  "decisive  battles  in  history."  The 
motive  here  is  merely  to  remind  the  Prayer  Book 
worshipper  how  faithfully  the  first  half  of  the  Church's 
Year  spreads  before  him  the  divine  side,  and  the  equally 
essential  human  side,  of  Christ's  mighty  work  and  con- 
test with  evil,  in  a  manner  to  attract  his  attention, 
to  deepen  his  love,  and  to  quicken  him  anew  with  a 
lively  hope  in  the  Saviour  of  the  world.  It  is  the 
Truth  of  the  Bible,  and  of  the  Nicene  Creed  in  its  fuller 
Chalcedonian  statement  concerning  the  One  and  the 
same  Christ,  recognized  in  the  two  natures,  that  has 
come  down  to  us  also  in  Services  practically  dating 
from  the  Nicene  age. 


THE  SPIRIT  AND  THE  PRAYER  BOOK 


Being  by  the  right  hand  of  God  exalted,  and  having  received 
of  the  Father  the  promise  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  he  hath  shed  forth 
this  which  ye  now  see  and  hear. — Acts  2  : 33. 

The  great  Captain  of  our  Salvation,  our  all-conquering  Re- 
deemer, was  not  so  elevated  with  the  pomp  of  His  triumphs  as 
to  forget  the  captives  that  He  released  among  the  children  ol 
Adam.  He  received  many  donations  from  His  Father  on  high  to 
shower  down  among  them  upon  His  coronation  day. — Ambrose 
Serle. 

Through  the  Holy  Spirit  we  are  restored  to  paradise,  ascend 
to  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  recover  the  adoption  of  sons,  may 
boldly  call  God  our  own  Father,  are  made  partakers  of  the  grace 
of  Christ,  are  called  children  of  light,  partake  of  eternal  glory, 
and,  in  a  word,  enjoy  the  fulness  of  blessing  both  in  this  world 
and  in  that  which  is  to  come. — St.  Basil  the  Great,  born  about 
329  A.  D. 

I  have  long  felt, — and  conversation  with  others  confirms  my 
belief, — that  the  book  sought  for  would  be  one  on  the  subject 
the  Christian  Church  needs  so  much  to  think  about,  pray  over, 
the  Holy  Spirit.  The  dynamic  we  lack  is  His  influence,  and 
surely  in  view  of  the  widespread  desire  for  unity,  we  need, 
possibly  as  never  before,  His  guidance.  I  cannot  tell  you  how 
precious  the  truth  of  His  power  is  to  me:  as  I  move  among  men 
of  sterling  manhood,  Christian  in  the  sense  of  admitting  the 
truths  of  the  Master's  revelation,  but  generally  indifferent  to 
the  claims  of  "formal"  Christianity,  I  am  compelled  to  feel  that 
His  power  alone  can  do  the  things  I  desire,  and  this  will  come, 
I  believe,  as  a  blessing  on  my  little  efforts. — McFetridge. 


(64) 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  SPIRIT  AND  THE  PRAYER  BOOK 


By  the  testimony  of  the  Scriptures  in  the  Old  and 
New  Testaments,  and  by  that  of  the  early  Church,  in 
the  Creeds,  and  in  primitive  portions  of  the  Prayer 
Book,  the  truth  of  the  Spirit  as  personal  and  divine, — 
although  undeveloped  in  its  doctrinal  expression, — we 
have  seen  to  be  second  only  to  the  truth  of  the  Divinity 
of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ. 

Creator  of  the  world,  and  of  man  at  the  beginning, 
He  is  also  the  Maker  and  Builder,  first,  of  the  new 
humanity  in  the  Person  of  Christ,  and  then, — after 
Christ's  ascent  to  the  Father  in  glory, — of  the  Body  of 
Christ,  the  Church  Universal,  now  gradually  filling 
the  world.  The  Vicar  of  our  unseen  Lord,  the  Spirit 
is  conspicuously  the  Guide  and  Leader  of  His  Church 
in  its  first  great  missionary  campaign,  recorded  in 
what  might  be  designated  the  Acts  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
He  is  the  risen  Lord's  Vice-gerent  in  every  baptism, 
and  the  Consecrator  of  every  eucharist.  He  is  the 
Spirit  of  adoption,  by  whose  indwelling  life  Christ's 
sonship  is  realized  in  us;  the  Spirit  of  prayer,  who 
cries,  Father,  in  every  true  Christian's  heart,  whether 
Jew  or  Gentile. 

Prayer  Book  history,  we  have  likewise  found,  points 
s  (65) 


66  THE  SPIRIT  AND  THE  PRAYER  BOOK 

back  to  the  very  infancy  and  childhood  of  the  Church, 
considerable  portions  of  it  being  derived  from  a  period 
when,  as  it  has  been  said,  forces  and  influences  at  work 
in  the  apostolic  age  projected  themselves  with  irre- 
sistible force  into  the  age  which  followed  it.  A  large 
proportion  of  its  devotional  elements  are  derived  prac- 
tically from  what  we  may  call  the  Nicene  period  of 
Church  History.  In  the  Liturgy  we  possess  "the 
restoration  of  all  that  is  essential,  both  in  form  and 
doctrine,  of  the  original  and  catholic  conception  of  the 
Eucharist."  A  wonderful  "conformity  to  type,  with 
certain  differences  in  the  different  national  Churches, 
is  observable  in  this,  the  chief  Christian  Service,  insti- 
tuted by  our  Lord  Himself.  In  the  Scottish  and  Ameri- 
can Church  is  found  again  the  Invocation  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  which  was  prominent  in  the  primitive  liturgies. 

We  possess  once  more  what  the  early  Church  enjoyed, 
and  the  mediaeval  Church  lost,  Common  Prayer,  that 
is,  devotional  forms  in  which  the  people  have  their 
part.  The  services  are  in  the  vernacular,  which  all 
understand  and  in  which  they  can  respond.  In  like 
manner  the  Eucharist  has  become  what  it  was  originally, 
the  service  of  the  Church  as  the  Lord's  Body.  The 
laity  have  a  complete  Communion,  with  God  and  with 
each  other,  receiving  as  of  old  both  consecrated  ele- 
ments. The  words  of  an  unknown  hymn  writer, 
translated  by  Dr.  Neale, 

"Draw  nigh  and  take  the  Body  of  the  Lord, 
And  drink  the  Holy  Blood  for  you  outpoured," 

which  lose  half  their  meaning  in  the  Roman  Mass,  for 
us  recover  their  full  significance. 

We    have    considered    the    Christian    Year,    "that 


WHAT  WE  MAY  EXPECT  OF  HIM  67 

i 

majestic  system  of  claiming  all  time  for  Christ,  and 
filling  every  day  in  every  year  with  His  Name  and 
Worship," — based  on  the  Jewish  year,  which,  full  of 
Messianic  types,  was  also  itself  a  means  of  spiritual 
uplifting  and  of  social  and  national  union  and  harmony, 
— and  are  ready  to  accept  the  assertion  that  this  Year 
"is  shown  by  the  Scriptures  to  have  originated  with  the 
divine  wisdom." 

II 

The  question  now  to  be  pondered,  is  whether  a  living 
relationship  may  be  predicated  between  the  Spirit 
whom  we  worship  and  glorify  as  God  and  these  sacred 
and  venerable  Services.  Is  He,  the  Creator-Spirit, 
in  a  real  and  vital  sense  the  Maker  of  these?  It  is 
possibly  in  some  sort  a  new  question;  yet  many  a 
sincere  lover  of  the  Prayer  Book  must  often  in  his  heart 
have  praised  God  for  it  as  a  good  gift,  a  well-nigh 
"perfect  gift  from  above."  God  has  spoken  to  him 
out  of  it  as  truly  as  out  of  the  Psalms  and  other  Scrip- 
tures incorporated  with  it.  If  his  conception  of  it  as 
a  divine  work  has  not  been  clear  and  decided,  may  it 
not  have  been  by  reason  of  the  fact  that  "the  doctrine 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  has  been  neglected"?  Conscious  of 
the  effect  of  His  inspiration,  we  have  failed  to  attribute 
it  to  Him  personally. 

Let  us  ask  ourselves  what  we  should  have  expected 
of  One  concerning  whom  our  Lord  said,  "He  shall  be  to 
you  what  I  have  been  to  you;  He  shall  teach  you  all 
things."  Should  we  not  have  anticipated  that  the 
promised  Vice-gerent  of  Christ  would  teach  His  people 
to  pray?  He  was  to  be  the  Church's  Advocate,  present 
at  all  times  to  befriend  and  counsel  her;  her  Comforter; 


68  THE  SPIRIT  AND  THE  PRATER  BOOK 

and  to  comfort  is  more  than  to  console.  A  friend  who 
in  hours  of  sorrow  or  difficulty  leads  me  to  the  one 
true  source  of  strength,  is  the  best  kind  of  com- 
forter. St.  Paul  wrote  of  the  Spirit  as  One  who  in  our 
times  of  infirmity  and  need  would  Himself  intercede 
within  us;  and  was  He  ready  and  desirous  to  do  this  for 
the  individual  believer,  but  not  for  that  mystical  Body 
of  Christ  upon  which  He  had  descended  at  Pentecost 
to  endue  it  with  spiritual  wisdom? 

Precedent  and  analogy  will  help  us  here.  A  large 
part  of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures  consists  of 
praises  and  prayers.  Intertwined  with  the  record 
of  divine  revelations,  made  progressively  to  and  through 
chosen  individuals  and  a  chosen  people  in  the  olden 
time,  appears  the  response  which  they  made  to  those 
revelations  in  confession,  thanksgiving,  and  petition. 
Holy  men  not  only  "spake"  otherwise,  but  sang 
praises  and  prayed,  "as  they  were  moved  by  the 
Holy  Ghost."  The  Truths  and  the  Prayers  together 
make  up  the  divine-human  deposit  which  has  come 
down  to  us.  Many  a  psalm  of  that  Psalter  whose 
composition  covers  more  than  a  thousand  years,  and 
which  has  been  incorporated  into  our  Book  of  Common 
Prayer,  and  which  we  regard  as  inspired,  either  begins, 
or  ends,  as  a  prayer.  The  last  words  in  one  of  them 
are,  "The  prayers  of  David  the  son  of  Jesse  are  ended." 

The  Prayers  of  the  Church  Universal  have  taken 
more  than  a  millennium  to  compose,  as  have  the  Hymns 
and  Spiritual  Songs  which  began  almost  at  once  to 
form  a  part  of  the  New  Testament  Response,  and  it 
would  evidently  have  been  impracticable  to  embody 
them  in  the  Scriptures  of  the  New  Covenant.  So  it 
was  with  the  Liturgy.  Though  wonderfully  "con- 


SPIRIT  OF  ORDER  AND  UNIVERSALITY          69 

formed  to  type,"  with  its  differences,  characteristic  of 
different  nationalities,  the  Communion  Service  could 
not  be  in  and  of  the  Bible,  as  could  the  book  of  Levit- 
icus,— full  of  divine  directions  concerning  services 
typical  of  the  One  True  Sacrifice  on  Calvary, — be  in 
and  of  it.  But  Bible  and  Prayer  Book,  and  Hymnal 
also,  lie  together  by  themselves  on  the  Church- 
man's table,  and  are,  so  to  say,  bound  up  as  one 
volume  in  his  heart,  a  precious  fruit  and  gift  of  the 
Spirit. 

He  is  the  Spirit  of  Order.  "After  this  manner 
pray  ye,"  said  Christ,  when,  asked  to  teach  His  disciples 
how  to  pray,  He  gave  them  the  "Our  Father";  and 
the  sequence  of  the  Prayer  Book  praises  and  petitions, 
corresponding  to  the  liturgical  structure  of  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  has  often  been  commented  on. 

The  Holy  Ghost  is  the  Spirit  of  Universality,  together 
with  Unity.  We  perceive  and  admire  this  in  relation 
to  the  world  we  live  in,  and  more  and  more,  as  we  come 
to  know  it,  in  that  kosmos  of  which  our  earth  is  a  part. 
The  same  mighty  forces,  the  same  principles  and 
methods  of  working,  manifest  themselves  hi  both; 
and  withal  an  infinite  variety.  So  works  "the 
mind"  of  the  Creator-Spirit  in  the  age-long  develop- 
ment of  that  two-fold  library  of  sacred  literature  which 
we  call  the  Bible.  St.  Cyril,  of  Jerusalem,  teaching 
his  catechumens,  made  a  beautiful  comparison  between 
the  rain,  "one  and  the  same,"  coming  down  upon  all 
the  world,  yet  becoming  white  in  the  lily,  red  in  the 
rose,  purple  in  the  violets  and  pansies,  with  the  Holy 
Ghost,  "one  and  uniform  and  undivided  in  Himself," 
distributing  His  grace  to  every  man  as  He  will;  and 
Cyril  might  with  equal  truth  and  suggestiveness  have 


70         THE  SPIRIT  AND  THE  PRAYER  BOOK 

applied  his  figure  to  the  Spirit  in  regard  to  the  Scrip- 
tures. It  was  at  sundry  times  and  divers  manners 
that  in  the  ancient  days  the  Spirit  of  God  spake  unto 
His  people  by  the  prophets,  and  almost  the  chief  evi- 
dence of  His  part  in  it  all  is  the  unity  in  the  different 
revelations  concerning  the  One  God,  and  in  the  promises 
of  a  universal  Saviour.  In  the  New  Testament 
Scriptures  there  is  in  the  different  writings, — often  as 
unlike  in  their  special  characteristics  of  expression  as 
the  rose  and  the  lily,  the  vine  and  the  palm-tree  are 
unlike  in  their  way, — the  same  unity  of  thought  and 
motive,  one  and  the  same  revelation  of  God  as  Father, 
Son  and  Holy  Spirit,  engaged  in  the  glorious  work  of 
redeeming  and  restoring  our  race. 

Now,  what  man  can  make  faithful  study  of  the 
historic  Services,  as  they  have  reached  us,  and  not  find 
the  "sundry  times"  and  the  "divers  manners," — so  to 
speak,  the  rose  and  the  lily,  the  palm-tree  and  the  vine, 
the  diversity  and  the  unity, — in  them  also?  I  am 
tempted  for  a  moment  out  of  my  path,  to  note  Dean 
Goulburn's  parallel  between  the  wild  hyacinths  and 
primroses  one  may  discover  at  the  root  of  a  decaying 
tree  and  the  "bunches  of  fragrant,  beautiful  prayers," 
appearing  when  the  old  Roman  Empire  was  hi  its  last 
stage  of  decay,  "giving  token  of  a  spiritual  vitality 
below  the  surface  of  society."  In  these  ancient 
Collects, — Collects  we  know  by  heart  and  teach  our 
children, — joined  to  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  mostly 
in  the  very  place  and  order  they  have  occupied  for 
more  than  a  thousand  years,  unfolding  to  man  pro- 
gressively the  Truth  of  the  Incarnate  Lord,  as  also 
in  the  arrangement  of  the  Lessons  for  Morning  and 
Evening  Prayer,  he  who  runs  his  eye  over  the  pages 


SPIRIT  OF  TRUTH  AND  GIVER  OF  LIFE         71 

should  be  able  to  read  signs  of  the  directing  "Mind  of 
the  Spirit." 

He  is  the  Spirit  of  Truth, — the  truth  of  Christ,  in 
its  own  distinctly  marked  unity  and  universality; 
the  Spirit  who,  presiding  unseen  in  the  great  Councils 
of  the  Church,  when  it  was  yet  undivided,  often  very 
stormy  and  to  the  eye  of  man  hopelessly  discordant 
Councils,  brought  out  at  last  a  clear  distinct  witness 
to  the  Faith,  as  "once  for  all  delivered  to  the  saints." 
On  every  page  the  Prayer  Book  reflects  to-day  this 
historic  Creed.  We  recognize  everywhere  in  these 
ancient  Services  that  truth  which  St.  Paul  held  up 
before  the  Ephesian  Church,  and  evidently  all  the 
Churches  he  founded:  One  Lord,  one  faith,  one  bap- 
tism, One  God  and  Father  of  all,  who  is  above  all,  and 
(in  His  Son)  through  all,  and  (by  His  Spirit)  in  us  all. 
For  there  was,  as  he  said  also,  "one  body  and  one 
Spirit,  even  as  ye  are  called  in  one  hope  of  your  calling" 
(Eph.  4  :  5,  6). 

The  Holy  Ghost  is  the  Giver  of  Life.  "Where- 
ever  there  is  life,  there  is  the  Spirit  of  God."  Ecclesi- 
astes,  speaking  of  the  rain-clouds  and  the  wind,  and  of 
seed-sowing  on  man's  part  to  be  attended  to  without 
too  careful  observation  of  these  operations  of  God, 
speaking  in  like  manner  of  the  birth  of  the  little  ones 
in  our  homes,  says,  "As  thou  knowest  not  what  is  the 
way  of  the  Spirit"  in  this  matter,  "even  so  thou 
knowest  not  the  works  of  God  who  maketh  all."  Is 
not  this  truth,  that  we  know  not  the  way  of  the  Spirit, 
as  real  in  the  realm  of  Christian  life  as  it  is  in  nature? 
Does  it  not  hold  in  respect  to  all  means  of  grace,  and 
all  divine  institutions,  whether  before  Christ's  coming 
or  since?  Conformity  to  type,  conformity  to  the 


72         THE  SPIRIT  AND  THE  PRAYER  BOOK 

hidden,  wonderful,  and  yet  perfectly  evident  principle 
of  life,  is  to  be  looked  for  in  all  the  operations  of  the 
self-same  Universal  Spirit.  What  we  know  not  as 
regards  the  coming  of  the  little  children  to  gladden  our 
homes, — know  not  concerning  the  marvel  of  Christ's 
humanity  as  born  of  a  pure  Virgin,  to  grow  and  become, 
when  glorified,  the  new  and  living  way  through  the  veil 
of  our  sins  and  iniquities  into  the  eternal  Home  on 
high, — we  may  not  expect  to  know  about  the  Lord's 
Church.  Particularly  will  this  be  true  of  the  child-life 
of  the  Church,  as  conceived  in  our  universal  humanity 
by  the  Spirit.  Who  can  tell,  or  expect  to  tell,  exactly 
how  it  grew? 

For  this  is  just  the  truth  about  the  Church,  that  in 
every  sense  it  grew.  As  it  seems  to  me  after  years  of 
reflection  on  the  matter,  not  enough  has  been  made  of 
this  principle  as  regards  the  Spirit  and  the  Church. 
Often  it  appears  to  receive  no  recognition,  and  again 
but  a  partial  one.  Bishop  Westcott  recognizes  it, 
when  he  says  that  after  the  close  of  the  Apostolic  age 
"the  Christian  societies  silently,  unconsciously,  through 
the  promised  help  of  the  Spirit,  fixed  the  broad  outlines 
of  the  Creed  and  the  Canon  of  Scripture,  and  shaped  a 
Catholic  Church."  He  says,  "The  Christian  Society 
has  a  life  of  its  own,  and  we  may  dare  to  say  that  its 
thoughts  are  widened  by  the  indwelling  Spirit"; 
and  again,  "Of  the  formation  of  the  primitive,  the 
Apostles',  Creed  we  can  only  say  that  it  grew."  The 
contents  of  both  the  Creed  and  the  Bible  "were  fixed 
by  common  usage;  that  is,  by  the  Christian  con- 
sciousness." 

Bishop  Robertson  wrote  in  Regnum  Dei:  "It  does 
not  surprise  us  that  in  the  collective  action  of  the 


ANALOGY  WITH  OLD  TESTAMENT  73 

Society  the  guidance  of  the  Spirit  was  most  especially 
counted  upon."  Why  not  apply  this  principle  of 
inner  life  and  growth  also  to  the  Response  of  the 
Church  to  the  New  Testament  revelations,  in  united 
praise  and  prayer;  "dare  to  say"  that  also  in  this  most 
important  particular  the  Church's  thoughts  were 
widened  and  deepened  by  the  indwelling  Spirit? 
Confessedly  it  had  been  thus  under  the  elder  covenant. 
Dr.  Downer  says:  "The  Psalms,  and  the  whole  of  the 
Divine  Lyric,  represent  the  moral  and  spiritual  breath- 
ings of  the  individual  under  the  teaching  and  discipline 
of  the  Holy  Spirit."  If  this  is  true,  and  if  not  the 
Psalms  merely,  but,  as  we  must  surely  believe,  the 
prayers  of  Abraham  and  of  Jacob,  of  Moses  and  Job 
and  Elijah,  of  Jeremiah  and  Ezekiel  and  Daniel, — 
Solomon's  prayer  at  the  dedication  of  the  Temple, — 
form  a  constituent  portion  of  the  divine  Word,  shall 
we  not  with  equal  confidence  ascribe  to  God's  Spirit 
those  forms  of  worship,  beautiful  with  the  beauty  of 
holiness,  which  week  by  week  and  day  by  day  now 
draw  the  Christian's  heart  heavenward  in  our  Prayer 
Book  Services? 

"The  Spirit  is  life,"  wrote  the  Apostle;  and  was  it 
not  for  this  reason  chiefly,  and  because  "the  letter" 
would  have  proved  to  His  future  Church,  to  say  the 
least  deadening,  that  our  Lord,  beyond  the  simple 
formula  of  Baptism  in  the  Triune  Name,  and  "This 
do  in  remembrance  of  me,"  and  that  simple  form  of 
Prayer,  the  Our  Father,  appears  to  have  left  no  positive 
directions  about  worship?  It  would  seem  to  be  in 
accord  with  this  truer,  safer  principle  of  inward  life 
and  growth  under  the  Spirit,  that  beyond  the  appoint- 
ment of  the  Eleven  there  was  no  regulation  of  a 


74  THE  SPIRIT  AND  THE  PRAYER  BOOK 

Ministry,  and  again,  no  direction  about  Infant  Bap- 
tism. Christ  wrote  no  word,  dictated  none,  to  be 
read  to  His  Church  as  a  personal  message.  The 
entire  New  Testament  deposit  of  Truth  concerning 
Him  is  a  ''fruit  of  the  Spirit."  Again,  as  of  old,  holy 
men,  evangelists,  apostles,  prophets,  speak  and  write 
as  they  are  moved  by  the  Holy  Spirit. 

To  refer  again  to  the  Canon  of  Holy  Scripture,  does 
not  the  remarkable  history  of  its  formation  altogether 
favor  our  conception  of  the  Church's  entire  life  as 
being  one  of  development  from  within,  a  divine- 
human  process  in  the  Spirit?  Dr.  Fulton,  in  his 
book  "The  Chalcedonian  Decree"  (page  50),  writes:- 

"The  old  theologians  held  that '  the  authority  of  Holy  Scripture 
is  from  God  alone/  not,  as  is  sometimes  foolishly  said,  from  the 
Church;  and  therefore  the  acceptance  of  particular  Scriptures 
has  always  been  left  to  the  free  action  of  particular  Churches, 
according  to  the  light  which  they  severally  had."  And  the  end, 
he  says,  "is  a  substantial  agreement  of  all  Churches." 

How  slowly  that  agreement  came!  It  is  difficult 
to  conceive  that  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  precious 
to  every  sincere  and  earnest  believer  in  Christ's  death 
upon  the  Cross  as  "a  full,  perfect  and  sufficient  sac- 
rifice, oblation  and  satisfaction  for  the  sins  of  the 
whole  world,"  was  not  everywhere  accepted  as  canoni- 
cal until  the  end  of  the  fourth  century.  To  enter 
further  into  this  interesting  and  suggestive  matter 
does  not  belong  strictly  to  our  subject,  nor  again  to 
discuss  that  of  the  sacred  ministry,  which  also  would 
seem  to  me  to  have  been  a  thing  of  growth,  under  the 
silent  operation  of  the  enabling  Spirit.  Sunday,  the 
Lord's  Day,  on  which  day  St.  John  makes  it  a  point 


A  DIVINE-HUMAN  PRODUCT  75 

to  declare  that  he  was  "in  the  Spirit, "  gradually  super- 
seded the  Sabbath  of  the  elder  covenant  by  the  influ- 
ence of  the  same  Spirit  of  life;  and  is  it  not  by  so  much 
the  more  sacred  and  full  of  spiritual  joy  to  Christians 
who  thus  regard  it? 

As  to  their  origin,  their  present  character,  and  their 
authority  for  our  spiritual  conscience,  all  these  are 
things  of  the  Spirit,  and  as  such  " things  of  Christ." 
Like  the  young  Christ  Himself,  the  young  Church  of 
Christ  after  its  Pentecostal  birth  increased  in  wisdom 
and  stature  in  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Accord- 
ingly, it  is  more  than  a  missing  of  our  aim,  with  the 
result  of  disappointment  and  perplexity, — it  is  to 
obscure  for  ourselves,  and  to  encourage  the  Church 
in  continuing  to  neglect,  the  truth  of  the  Third  Per- 
son's characteristic  mission, — when  we  anxiously 
endeavor  to  trace  a  clearly  defined  historical  con- 
nection between  the  methods  and  institutions  of  the 
Church  and  particular  injunctions  of  the  Apostles 
or  of  our  Lord.  We  must  think  of  the  historical 
link  as  being  the  blessed  Spirit  Himself.  The  whole 
early  Church,  as  long  as  it  lived  on  undivided,  had, 
as  St.  Paul  expressed  it,  "the  mind  of  Christ."  It 
was  the  mind  of  Christ  as  being  the  mind  of  the  Spirit 
who  was  His  Vice-gerent  on  earth. 

Returning  now  to  the  Prayer  Book  in  particular, 
as  being,  like  the  Scriptures,  an  integral  part  of  the 
Church's  inestimable  inheritance,  while  it  is  perfectly 
appropriate  to  speak  of  the  workmanship  of  it,  espe- 
cially after  the  manner  of  Bishop  Dowden, — for  a  divine- 
human  product  it  is — we  must  cherish  the  thought  of 
the  divine  element  in  it  as  being  no  less  than  the  unseen, 
present,  Spirit  of  our  Lord.  It  is  right  to  say,  with 


76  THE  SPIRIT  AND  THE  PRAYER  BOOK 

Bishop  Coxe,  that  our  Blessed  Lord  is  Himself  the 
great  Author  of  the  Liturgy,  and  include  in  our  thought 
what  he  says  of  those  portions  borrowed  from  or  con- 
formed to  Apostolic  and  Primitive  ordinances,  if  only 
we  add,  at  least  mentally,  that  nothing  was  ever 
"made  that  was  made," — and  these  sacred  services 
were  not, — without  the  co-operation  of  the  divine 
Spirit.  And  the  Spirit  is  life.  When  Dr.  Waterman 
speaks  of  "some  power"  as  having  "impressed  upon 
the  Church's  mind  that  certain  things  must  be  done" 
in  the  Communion  Service;  suggests  the  influence  of 
"an  authority  so  commanding  that  they  could  not 
but  follow  it,"  and  when  Dr.  Garrison  writes  of  the 
sacraments,  ministry,  and  services,  as  being  derived 
from  the  universal  Body  of  the  Lord,  and  "ordained 
under  the  commission  Christ  gave  His  Church  at  its 
foundation,"  we  add, — maybe  they  in  their  thoughts 
added, — that  the  "commission"  was  given  above 
all  to  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  the  power  and  authority 
above  all  vested  in  Him  as  the  Lord,  the  Spirit. 

Moreover,  the  Spirit  had  come  to  stay.  The  Father, 
in  answer  to  the  Son's  prayer,  would  give  us  another 
Comforter,  that  He  might  abide  with  us  for  ever. 
This  promise  we  have  a  right  to  apply  to  the  Church's 
prayers  as  enriched  from  time  to  time, — not  a  little 
enriched  in  quantity  and  in  spiritual  depth  by  the 
English  Revisers  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
centuries.  "Lord,  teach  us  to  pray,"  was  a  petition 
which  Christ  has  been  answering  throughout  the 
centuries.  Alike  the  individual  believer  and  the 
Church  as  a  body,  as  time  goes  on  and  new  occasions 
for  divine  succour  and  guidance  arise,  feel  the  need; 
and  ever  again  the  need  is  met.  One  instance  is  the 


CONTINUED  PRESENCE  AND  CARE  77 

comparatively  new  Collect  for  the  Second  Sunday 
after  Easter:  "Almighty  God,  who  hast  given  Thine 
only  Son  to  be  unto  us  both  a  sacrifice  for  sin,  and 
also  an  ensample  of  godly  life."  Of  this  Collect  Goul- 
burn  says,  "It  summarizes  the  whole  benefit  of  Re- 
demption *  *  *  perhaps  we  should  not  err  in 
saying  that  it  embraces  more  matter  than  any  other 
Collect."  In  such  an  increase  in  richness  and  fulness 
of  thought,  expressed  in  what  Goulburn  calls  "two 
masterly  touches,"  may  we  not  be  confident  of  seeing 
a  distinct  proof  of  the  Spirit's  ever-continued  minis- 
tration? 

I  fasten  upon  and  appropriate,  as  true  in  this  sphere 
of  worship,  Bishop  Weston's  remark  respecting  the 
Universal  Councils,  as  speaking 

"with  the  authority  of  the  Holy  Spirit  both  to  Churchmen  and 
on  their  behalf.  For,  first,  the  Spirit  guides  and  assists  the 
counsels  of  Christ's  mystical  body,  enlightening  the  minds  of  the 
faithful  generally,  and  directing  their  teachers  to  a  clearer  view 
of  the  things  of  God.  Each  age  has  its  proper  inspiration. 
And  secondly,  ascending  Godward  from  the  heart  of  the  redeemed 
race,  He  makes  articulate  before  God  the  joyful  realization  by 
men  of  the  once  hidden  mysteries  of  redemption  through  the  blood 
of  Christ  and  communion  with  God  in  Him," 

True  it  is  that  the  Church  of  our  fathers,  in  Cran- 
mer's  time  and  since,  has  been  acting  as  a  mere  Branch 
of  the  Church  Universal;  but  this  could  not  be  helped, 
and  we  may  think  that  as  such  she  has  enjoyed  her 
proper  share  of  the  heavenly  gift,  and  been  signally 
aided  hi  making  her  belief  in  Christ  "articulate" 
before  His  Father,  and  our  Father,  in  Common  Praise 
and  Prayer. 
That  the  leaders  in  Church  and  State  in  England. 


78  THE  SPIRIT  AND  THE  PRAYER  BOOK 

in1  the  sixteenth  century,  held  this  view  of  the  Spirit's 
ever-continued  guidance  and  help  in  all  corporate 
action  concerning  sacred  worship,  is  plain  from  a  cer- 
tain sentence  in  the  Act  of  Uniformity  prepared,  in 
accordance  with  the  instructions  of  King  Edward  VI, 
by  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  with  other  bishops 
and  learned  divines,  and  carried  through  both  houses 
of  Parliament,  January  21,  1549.  It  was  not  by  these 
godly  and  learned  men  thought  enough  to  arrange 
such  an  order, 

"having  as  well  eye  and  respect  to  the  most  sincere  and  pure 
Christian  religion  taught  by  the  Scripture,  as  to  the  usage  in 
the  Primitive  Church":  they  said  also,  This  "rite  and  fashion 
of  Common  and  open  Prayer  and  administration  of  the  Sacra- 
ments has  been  by  the  Aid  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  with  One  Uniform 
Agreement,  concluded  by  them,  and  is  set  forth  by  them  in  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer."  (Gibson's  Codex,  2d  edition, 
page  260,  vol.  I.) 

We  may  claim  to  have  found  evidence  of  the  Spirit's 
divine  watchfulness  and  care  also  in  the  preservation 
of  our  ancient  Services,  as  wonderful  as  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  Bible  itself.  Like  the  gold  and  silver  vessels 
of  the  Temple,  brought  back  by  Zerubbabel,  are  these 
vials  (or  vases)  full  of  precious  odors,  which  are  the 
prayers  of  the  saints  hi  the  purest  ages  of  the  Church's 
life,  and  which  have  been  handed  safely  down  to  us. 

The  Holy  Spirit  was  to  be  the  Church's  Teacher  in 
all  things,  and  in  no  respect  is  the  Prayer  Book  a  mightier 
instrument  in  His  hands,  than  in  that  of  its  capacity 
to  communicate  definite  instruction  to  all  sorts  and 
conditions  of  men  in  all  ages- 

"It  was  by  means  of  the  Liturgy,  mainly,"  says  Dr.  Garrison, 
that  "the  faith  of  the  Church  was  preserved  uniform  and  un- 


BEAUTY  DEGREE  OF  INSPIRATION  79 

changed  throughout  the  widely  scattered  Christian  Church  in 
its  early  ages;"  and  again,  "The  liturgies  of  no  portion  of  the 
Church  in  any  country  or  in  any  age  have  ever  failed  to  keep 
firm  hold  of  the  great  central  truths  of  the  Gospel,  and  to  present 
to  the  people  all  the  essential  elements  of  the  Christian  life." 
And  in  and  by  the  very  act  of  prayer  "are  these  essential  truths 
infused  into  the  life  of  our  spirits"  (page  201). 

The  Spirit  of  God  is  a  Spirit,  not  of  Wisdom  and 
Power  only,  but  of  Beauty.  The  exquisite  beauty  of 
the  floating  summer  clouds  and  of  the  evening  sky, 
of  sea  and  lake  and  mountain,  is  of  the  Creator-Spirit. 
To  Him  the  world  has  owed  the  genius  of  Bezalel,  and 
Phidias,  of  Michelangelo  and  Raphael,  of  David 
and  Shakspere  and  Tennyson,  of  Mozart  and  Haydn. 
The  Bible  has  a  spiritual  dignity  and  beauty  of  form 
all  its  own,  and  these  we  attribute  in  large  measure 
to  the  Mind  of  the  Spirit;  and  few  of  the  great  masters 
of  literature  in  our  day,  if  any,  have  failed  to  recognize 
in  the  Prayer  Book  as  a  whole  a  nobility  of  expression 
comparable  to  that  of  the  Scriptures. 

Ill 

And  now  more  than  one  reader,  while  fully  inclined 
to  admit,  first,  that  it  would  assuredly  be  the  Spirit's 
affair  to  create  such  a  human  response  to  the  divine 
revelations  as  the  services  of  the  Church  Catholic  are, 
and  secondly,  that  we  do  seem  to  see  His  signature 
upon  many  a  portion  written,  as  it  were,  "in  large 
letters,"  like  that  of  St.  Paul  at  the  end  of  Galatians, 
may  have  a  question  to  ask.  If  inspiration  be  pre- 
dicated of  the  Prayer  Book,  in  what  sense,  and  in  what 
degree  shall  we  affirm  it?  Is  it  like  that  of  the  Scrip- 
tures themselves? 


80  THE  SPIRIT  AND  THE  PRAYER  BOOK 

.  To  questions  like  these,  however,  who  even  among 
the  wisest  and  most  learned  of  Christians  may  under- 
take to  give  a  categorical  reply?  Each  one  of  us  will 
have  an  opinion  and  feeling  of  his  own  as  to  what 
inspiration  is,  and  as  to  what  is  inspired.  Regarding 
the  Scriptures  themselves  the  Church  Universal  has 
never  had  any  theory. 

"It  was  content,"  wrote  Dr.  Fulton  (Chalcedonian  Decree, 
p.  98),  "to  profess  its  faith  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Giver  of 
all  life,  physical  and  spiritual,  who  of  old  times  spake  to  the 
fathers  through  the  prophets  *  *  *  no  theory  of  inspiration 
is,  or  ought  to  be,  any  part  of  Christianity  *  *  *  the 
Christian  religion  is  not  bound  up  with  any  theory  on  that 
subject,"  and  Bishop  Gore  has  said,  "We  cannot  make  any 
exact  claim  upon  any  one's  belief  in  regard  to  Inspiration, 
simply  because  we  have  no  authoritative  definition  to  bring  to 
bear  upon  him.  Those  of  us  who  believe  most  in  the  inspiration 
of  the  Church  will  see  a  divine  purpose  in  this  absence  of  dogma, 
because  we  shall  perceive  that  only  now  is  the  state  of  knowledge 
such  as  admits  of  the  question  being  legitimately  raised," 

That  there  are,  alike  in  the  Old  and  New  Testament 
Scriptures,  degrees  of  inspiration  manifested  in  the 
human  response  to  divine  disclosures  of  truth  pro- 
gressively made,  few  if  any  biblical  scholars  will  deny. 
The  Magnificat  moves  obviously  on  a  higher  plane  of 
inspiration  than  the  song  of  Hannah,  which  it  resem- 
bles, and  the  Benedictus  and  Nunc  Dimittis  in  certain 
respects  occupy  a  yet  higher  one.  If  we  can  conceive 
of  our  Lord's  blessed  mother  giving  utterance  to  her 
joy  and  gratitude  thirty  years  later,  having  learned 
with  St.  James  and  St.  John  what  spirit  we  "are  of" 
in  the  new  dispensation,  can  we  not  think  of  her 
magnifying  the  Lord  because  He  had  "filled  the  hun- 


LOVING  SOLICITUDE  FOR  THE  CHURCH          81 

gry  with  good  things,"  while  saying  naught  of  the  rich 
being  "sent  empty  away?" 

Will  not  the  Spirit  in  our  hearts  Himself  best  enable 
us  to  answer  questions  relating  to  the  Prayer  Book  as 
an  object  of  His  creative  energy  and  loving  solicitude? 
If  the  method  in  this  chapter  has  appeared  strikingly 
tentative  and  interrogative,  a  way  of  meeting  one 
query  by  putting  forward  others,  it  will  not,  I  trust, 
be  set  down  to  anything  else  than  a  due  and  natural 
discretion;  the  dislike  to  seem,  still  more  to  be,  wise 
hi  my  own  conceits,  and  above  that  which  is  written. 

"So  runs  my  dream,  but  what  am  I?" 

Not  quite,  it  is  hoped,  like  Tennyson's  infant, 
"crying  in  the  night,"  or  "crying  for  the  light,"  yet 
possessed  with  a  certain  sense  of  loneliness  until  voices 
shall  be  heard,  saying,  some,  "we  are  with  you,"  others, 
possibly, "  we  have  always  thought  so."  If  my  feeling 
and  opinion,  read  in  the  lines  and  between  them,  appears 
too  pronounced,  let  it  be  qualified  by  the  judgment  of  the 
learned  and  wise.  All  that  can  be  asked  is  that  what  has 
been  written  shall  receive  consideration,  and  with  it  Dr. 
Fulton's  question  (page  100):  "Who  would  presume  to 
set  up  a  theory  of  inspiration  which  would  virtually 
deny  that  the  various  and  partial  inspirations  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  who  spake  by  the  prophets  were  generically 
different  from  the  diversities  of  gifts  by  which  that 
one  and  self-same  Spirit  now  guides  and  inspires 
Christ's  Church  and  its  members?  In  the  hard  and 
fast  theories  of  inspiration  which  have  prevailed  in 
modern  times,  nothing  is  so  pitiful  as  the  unconscious 
but  real  assumption  that  the  Holy  Ghost,  which 
spake  of  old  to  the  fathers  in  the  prophets,  speaks  no 

6 


82  THE  SPIRIT  AND  THE  PRAYER  BOOK 

more  in  the  new  and  fuller  dispensation  of  the  Spirit 
which  our  Saviour  promised."  These  vigorous  sen- 
tences of  Dr.  Fulton  will  have  force  with  us  who  have 
inherited  "Services  substantially  the  most  ancient 
now  in  use  in  Christendom."  "Ours  is  the  Church 
of  the  Nicene  Age  restored."  Grateful  for  this  high 
privilege,  grateful  that  "such  as  the  Church  was  then 
in  the  days  of  martyrs,  such  is  our  own  Church  now," 
we  shall  be  grateful  too  for  every  sign  of  the  Spirit's 
presence  with  and  in  her,  and  desirous  that  due  recog- 
nition, and  a  more  definite  expression  of  it  shall  be 
included  in  the  new  and  ampler  development  of  the 
Doctrine  of  the  Spirit  in  our  day. 

IV 

The  reader  will  believe  that  Dr.  Downer  strikes  a 
chord  in  my  heart  when,  having  spoken  of  his  own 
need  of  Divine  grace 

"to  think  rightly,  to  write  truly,  to  act  faithfully,  in  all  that 
pertains  to  this  sacred  and  wonderful  Person,  who  is  the  Lord 
and  Life-giver,"  he  adds:  "If  in  any  degree  the  realization  shall 
answer  to  the  aim,  I  would  hope  that  these  chapters,  together 
with  the  writings  of  better  teachers,  may  contribute  to  render 
the  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit  the  characteristic  study  of  the 
twentieth  century.  When  it  shall  become  so,  we  may  look 
for  a  fuller,  richer  life  and  experience  in  the  Church;  a  deeper 
longing  after  personal  and  corporate  holiness,  with  a  clearer 
view  of  the  method  of  its  attainment"  (page  xiii). 

To  me  there  is  pleasure  merely  in  the  hope  of  impart- 
ing by  the  present  study  a  slight  impetus  to  so  noble 
a  movement  of  thought, — of  stirring  some  one  or  more 
of  the  "better  teachers"  to  deal  with  my  theme  in 
particular  as  it  might  be  dealt  with. 


A  STUDY  FOR  OUR  TIME  83 

The  entire  second  half  of  the  Christian  Year,  named 
after  the  Trinity  in  our  Book,  remains  to  be  treated. 
It  is  hoped  that  in  the  course  of  this  treatment  more 
light  may  be  thrown  upon  the  proposition  I  have 
sought  to  establish.  Certain  it  is  that  the  clearer 
signs  we  can  discover,  that  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer  is, — what  we  ourselves  are  as  Christians, — 
the  Spirit's  "  workmanship,"  the  dearer  and  more 
sacred  it  will  become  to  us.  And  on  the  other  hand, 
so  much  the  more  precious  will  be  the  truth  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  Sanctifier  of  the  Faithful,  tha't  "blessed 
Spirit,  whom,  with  the  Father  and  the  Son  together, 
we  worship  and  glorify  as  one  God,  world  without  end. 
Amen," 


THE  TRINITY    SEASON 


How  profoundly  we  are  indebted  to  the  Bible  for  knowledge 
of  spiritual  things,  and  how  as  the  ages  move  on  does  new  light 
under  the  illumination  of  the  Spirit  break  forth  from  it!  Con- 
stantly too,  it  seems  to  me,  the  orthodox  and  conservative  faith 
becomes  at  once  no  less  firm  as  to  fundamental  truths  long  held, 
and  comprehensive  of  all  shades  of  truth,  new  and  old,  that 
have  been  held  apart  from  their  full  relations;  so  that  the  faith  as 
intelligently  held  ever  broadens. — Letter  of  Dr.  James  E.  Rhoads. 

I  think  one  reason  that  the  great  crowning  festival  of  the 
Christian  Year,  Whitsunday,  meets  with  such  slight  regard  is 
the  very  spirituality  of  it.  Our  lives  are  so  coarsened,  if  I  may 
coin  the  word,  with  the  continual  friction  of  the  world  around 
us,  that  we  lose  sense  of  those  finer  things  which  lie  beyond  the 
claims  of  ordinary  life.  Now  the  principle  on  which  we  neglect 
the  future  life  in  our  absorption  in  the  present  is  just  the  same 
as  that  on  which  we  neglect  the  Festival  of  the  Descent  of  the 
Spirit  on  the  Church,  in  comparison  with  those  of  the  birth  and 
of  the  resurrection  of  our  Lord.  *  *  *  Without  the  Spirit, 
the  events  of  our  Lord's  career  must  ever  be  purely  external 
to  us.  And  being  purely  external  they  will  be  incredible.  It  is 
He  that  makes  the  life  and  death  and  resurrection  of  the  Christ 
anything  more  to  us  than  a  picture  is  to  a  blind  man  or  a 
symphony  of  music  is  to  a  deaf  man. — Bishop  Reichel. 


(86) 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  TRINITY  SEASON 


Dr.  Blunt,  in  The  Annotated  Book  of  Common 
Prayer  (page  114),  writes  as  follows: 

"The  Octave  of  Pentecost  has  been  observed  in  honor  of  the 
Blessed  Trinity  from  a  very  early  age  of  the  Church.  In  the 
Lectionary  of  St.  Jerome  the  same  Epistle  and  Gospel  are 
appointed  which  have  always  been  used  in  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land; and  the  Collect  is  from  the  Sacramentary  of  St.  Gregory. 
But  the  name  "Trinity  Sunday"  was  general  until  a  later 
period,  though  it  has  been  used  in  the  English  Breviary  and 
Missal  since  the  time  of  St.  Osmund,  and  may  have  been  adopted 
by  him  from  still  earlier  offices  of  the  Church.  In  the  Eastern 
Church  this  day  is  the  Festival  of  all  holy  Martyrs;  a  festival 
which  has  been  observed  at  this  time  in  the  East,  even  in  the 
days  of  Chrysostom  and  the  Emperor  Leo,  who  have  left  respect- 
ively a  Homily  and  an  Oration  upon  it. 

"It  appears  to  have  been  regarded  as  a  separate  Festival  in 
the  western  world  only  by  the  Church  of  England,  and  those 
Churches  of  Germany  which  owe  their  origin  to  the  English 
St.  Boniface,  or  Winfred.  Both  in  the  ancient  English  and  in 
the  ancient  German  Office  books  all  the  Sundays  afterwards 
until  Advent  are  named  after  Trinity;  whereas,  in  all  Offices 
of  the  Roman  type  they  are  named  after  Pentecost. 

"It  seems  probable,"  continues  Dr.  Blunt,  "that  this  distinc- 
tive ritual  mark  is  a  relic  of  the  independent  origin  of  the  Church 
of  England,  similar  to  those  peculiarities  which  were  noticed 
by  St.  Augustine,  and  which  were  attributed  by  the  ancient 

(87) 


88  THE  TRINITY  SEASON 

British  bishops  to  some  connection  with  St.  John.  In  this  case 
it  is,  at  least,  significant  that  it  was  St.  John  through  whom  the 
doctrine  of  the  Holy  Trinity  was  most  clearly  revealed;  and 
also  that  the  early  Church  of  England  was  never  infested  by 
the  heresies  on  this  subject  which  troubled  other  portions  of 
the  Christian  world. 

"The  general  observance  of  the  day  as  a  separate  Festival  in 
honour  of  the  blessed  Trinity  was  first  enjoined  by  a  synod  of 
Aries,  in  A.  D.  1260.  *  *  *  It  seems  to  have  become  gener- 
ally observed  by  the  Roman  as  well  as  other  Churches  at  the 
end  of  the  fourteenth  century;  but  the  Sundays  after  it  are 
still  named  from  Pentecost  in  all  the  Catholic  Churches  of  the 
West,  except  those  of  England  and  Germany." 

It  will  not  be  necessary  to  quote  the  comments 
which  follow  upon  the  fitness  of  a  Festival  so  named, 
coming  after  the  Services  which  commemorate  our 
Lord's  life,  His  death  and  glorious  resurrection  and 
ascension,  and  the  resulting  revelation  of  the  Holy 
Spirit. 

"In  the  festival  of  Trinity  all  these  solemn  subjects  of  belief 
are  gathered  into  one  act  of  worship,  as  the  Church  Militant 
looks  upward  through  the  door  that  is  opened  in  Heaven,  and 
bows  down  in  adoration  with  the  Church  Triumphant,  saying, 
'Holy,  Holy,  Holy,  Lord  God  Almighty,  which  was  and  is  and 
is  to  come.  *  *  *  Thou  art  worthy,  O  Lord,  to  receive 
glory,  and  honour,  and  power;  for  Thou  hast  created  all  things, 
and  for  Thy  pleasure  they  are  and  were  created.'" 

Every  sentence  in  these  paragraphs  will  interest 
the  Prayer  Book  worshipper,  not  the  least  those  having 
reference  to  the  independent  origin  of  our  branch  of 
the  Western  Church,  and  the  probable  influence  of  the 
title,  Sundays  after  Trinity.  It  is  not  difficult  to  con- 
ceive that  the  name  Trinity,  printed  on  page  after  page 
of  our  Service  Book  during  so  many  centuries,  has 


ORIGIN  OF  THE  NAME  89 

done  much  to  strengthen  the  orthodoxy  of  Church 
people. 

On  the  other  hand,  whoever  realizes  that  the  mani- 
festation of  the  Third  Person  in  the  Trinity  on  the 
first  Whitsunday  was  as  real  a  turning-point  in  human 
history  as  the  Birthday  of  Christ,  will  feel  no  surprise 
that  Dr.  Blunt's  comment,  read  for  the  first  time 
many  years  ago,  became  a  subject  of  much  thought 
with  me.  It  raised  this  question:  Do  these  twenty- 
five  Sunday  Services,  which  were  not  anciently  named 
after  Trinity,  and  are  not  now  so  named  in  the  Latin 
Church,  have  in  fact  the  event  of  the  Spirit's  descent, 
and  the  consequent  outpouring  of  new  life  and  power 
from  heaven,  for  their  dominant  thought  and  motive? 

The  event,  I  say;  for  it  is  rather  events  than  truths 
to  which  men  build  monuments,  and  appoint  days  of 
commemoration.  The  Nativity  of  Christ  was  an 
event.  So  was  His  Manifestation  to  the  Wise  Men, 
who,  coming  from  the  East,  represented  nations  that 
eventually  would  sit  down  with  Abraham's  children 
in  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  Easter  marks  an  event. 
If  Christ  be  not  risen,  our  faith  is  vain;  there  is  no 
Gospel.  And  it  is  the  same  with  Whitsunday. 

What  have  other  writers  on  the  Prayer  Book  said 
on  this  matter?  Turning  to  Procter  and  Frere  (page 
548)  we  read : 

"In  early  days  the  Sunday  following  Whitsunday  was  kept 
merely  as  its  octave.  The  service  of  the  Trinity  came  into 
existence  first  as  a  Votive  Mass;  it  then  became  customary 
(apparently  first  in  England,  and  in  the  tenth  or  eleventh  cen- 
tury) to  use  this  upon  the  Octave  of  Pentecost,  as  a  day  more 
especially  appropriate;  and  from  this  arose  the  festival  of 
Trinity  Sunday,  designed  to  sum  up  all  the  dogmatic  teaching 
of  the  first  half  of  the  year  in  a  solemn  commemoration  of  God 


90  THE  TRINITY  SEASON 

the  Blessed  Trinity.  Following  the  English  custom,  the  succeed- 
ing Sundays  are  in  the  Prayer  Book  reckoned  after  Trinity  and 
not  after  Pentecost." 

In  respect  to  the  Epistle  and  Gospel  for  Trinity 
Sunday  it  is  noted  (page  549)  that  "these  are  the  same 
that  were  read  in  the  old  Octave  of  Pentecost,  the  last 
day  of  the  more  solemn  time  of  baptism,  to  which  the 
Gospel  refers,"  and  it  may  be  added,  the  Whit,  or 
White  in  the  name  Whitsunday  refers,  because  candi- 
dates for  baptism  came  to  the  font  clothed  in  white 
raiment. 

Further,  it  is  said  (page  550),  that  the  Epistles  for 
the  Sundays  after  Trinity,  taken  in  the  order  in  which 
they  stood  in  the  Sarum  Book,  "are  a  series  of  exhor- 
tations to  the  practice  of  Christian  virtues." 

Carrying  our  question  to  Dr.  Samuel  Hart,  we 
receive  practically  the  same  information,  with  this 
point  added,  that  "the  special  observance  in  honor  of 
the  Holy  Trinity  is  attributed  to  St.  Thomas  a  Becket, 
about  1165;  but  it  would  appear  to  have  been  older 
by  at  least  a  century"  (page  128,  Book  of  Common 
Prayer).  We  are  told  that,  "whereas  in  the  former 
half  of  the  Christian  year,  from  Advent  to  Trinity, — 
which  brings  before  us  the  successive  events  or  lessons 
of  the  Lord's  life, — the  Sunday  Gospels  contain  the 
special  teaching,  and  the  Epistles  are  chosen  to  illus- 
trate and  emphasize  that  teaching;"  in  the  latter  half 
it  is  the  other  way:  "on  the  Sundays  after  Trinity, 
it  is  the  Apostles  who  are  teaching,  and  the  Lord  who 
'confirms  their  word'  by  His  signs  and  His  lessons  of 
truth." 

Bishop  Coxe,  having  said  ("Thoughts  on  the  Ser- 
vices," page  231)  that  the  Epistle  and  Gospel  for 


TESTIMONY  OF  BISHOP  COXE  91 

Trinity  Sunday  are  the  more  striking  because  the 
ancient  ones  for  the  Octave  of  Pentecost  were  not 
specially  selected  with  reference  to  the  Trinity,  remarks 
(page  233) : 

"So  far  (in  the  Church  Year)  we  have  seen  that  the  Son  of 
God  was  'manifested';  now  we  are  to  learn  how  He  destroyed 
'the  works  of  the  devil.' "  Commenting  on  our  mutual  weakness 
and  need  of  grace,  and  calling  attention  to  the  Collect,  "O  God, 
the  strength  of  all  those  that  put  their  trust  in  thee,"  he  con- 
tinues: "Like  the  rod  of  Aaron,  the  rod  and  staff  of  our  Creed 
must  now  blossom  and  bear  fruit  in  piety;  so  we  pray  for  the 
life-giving  Spirit,  that  we  who  are  by  nature  dead  in  sin,  may 
become  plants  of  grace  in  the  garden  of  God." 

The  Bishop  is  greatly  impressed  by  the  difference  in 
the  teaching  and  entire  spiritual  atmosphere  of  the  two 
periods,  that  from  Advent  to  Trinity,  and  that  from 
Trinity  to  Advent. 

"As  the  whole  book  of  the  Acts  is  a  record  of  the  Spirit  and 
has  been  called  the  'Gospel  of  the  Holy  Ghost,'  we  continue  to 
read  it  at  this  season  in  the  Daily  Lessons  and  also  on  Sundays 
after  Trinity  Sunday.  Indeed,  the  residue  of  the  year  must  be 
conceived  of  as  a  continuous  commemoration  of  the  Spirit,  just 
as  the  earlier  half  of  the  year  is  dedicated  to  the  Eternal  Word. 
The  feast  of  the  Holy  Trinity  serves  as  the  clasp  or  bond  by  which 
the  whole  is  made  a  unit.  Thus  the  Lord,  and  Giver  of  Life, 
receives  due  honour,  while  His  divine  personality  and  blessed 
offices  are  prominently  kept  in  view.  May  all  who  profess  to 
worship  the  Spirit  do  so  in  Spirit  and  in  truth"  (page  223). 

Clearer  and  more  forcible  expressions  than  these 
none  could  ask  or  expect.  No  such  testimony,  however, 
is  borne  later  by  Bishop  Coxe  to  the  Epistles  and 
Collects  of  this  period  as  regards  the  Truth  of  the 
Spirit;  for  example,  on  the  Fourteenth  Sunday,  in 
whose  Epistle  the  Holy  Spirit  is  named  five  times; 


92  THE  TRINITY  SEASON 

and  on  the  Nineteenth,  when  we  pray  that  God's  "  Holy 
Spirit  may  in  all  things  direct  and  rule  our  hearts," 
and  are  taught  in  the  Epistle  not  to  "grieve"  Him. 

Dr.  Blunt,  after  furnishing  the  above-mentioned 
information  in  regard  to  the  late  origin  of  the  name 
Trinity  Sunday  in  the  English  Church,  and  the  sug- 
gestive comments  thereupon,  makes  slight  reference 
to  the  Spirit  in  his  often  quite  full  comments  upon  the 
Epistles. 

There  seems,  then,  to  be  good  reason  for  -devoting 
thought  to  the  subject  of  this  chapter;  and  encourage- 
ment to  do  so  has  come  from  the  conviction  that 
others  have  had  our  question  in  mind,  yet  have  not 
sought  the  answer.  In  a  letter  from  a  wise  bishop, 
lately  deceased,  was  the  remark:  "I  have  never  con- 
sidered fully  the  reason  for  designating  the  Sundays 
after  Trinity  as  we  do,  in  preference  to  the  Roman 
use,  though  not  confined  to  the  Romans,  of  designating 
them  Sundays  after  Pentecost." 

II 

Taking  up  our  task  of  examination,  and  remembering 
the  fact  just  noted,  that  the  Epistles  give  the  leading 
thoughts  in  the  Service  from  Whitsunday  to  Advent, 
we  turn  to  them  first,  and  chiefly.  Bishop  Coxe, 
and  other  authorities,  have  supposed  the  reason  for  the 
choice  of  these  Epistles  to  lie  in  their  capacity  to 
"build  up  the  members  of  Christ's  Church  in  personal 
holiness."  This  they  assuredly  do,  and  a  blessed 
end  it  is.  The  Holy  Ghost  is  here  to  make  every 
Christian  soul  His  temple,  and  the  comforting  and 
uplifting  books  which  are  continually  being  written 
upon  this  aspect  of  His  ministration,  are  none  too 


SPIRIT  CONDUCTS  A  WORLD-MISSION          93 

numerous.  But  there  are  wider  aspects  of  it  revealed 
in  the  Epistles,  and,  as  we  shall  see,  in  those  appointed 
for  this  season  especially.  It  must  be  the  case,  if  He 
is  indeed  the  Creator-Spirit,  who  in  Christ's  name 
and  as  His  Vice-gerent  is  laying  the  foundations  of  the 
Church,  wherever  they  are  laid  in  the  whole  world, 
or,  as  Dr.  Downer  expressed  it,  "conducting  the 
missionary  campaign  of  the  Ascended  Lord."  If 
the  season  which  stretches  from  Whitsunday  to 
Advent,  equalling  in  length  all  the  other  Church 
Seasons  together,  is,  as  I  hope  to  show,  the  Spirit's 
Season,  we  may  expect  to  find  in  it  hints,  at  least,  of 
many  elements  of  His  personal  greatness,  and  of  the 
breadth  and  power  of  His  sacred  mission. 

The  Apostles  apprehended  these  elements,  but,  as 
Dr.  Fairbairn  has  said,  "the  Fathers  were  slow  in 
discovering  them."  We  are  all  slow  to  realize  them, 
even  we  who  "worship  and  glorify  Him"  as  "the  Lord, 
and  Giver  of  Life.  His  work,"  writes  Dr.  Fairbairn, 
"was  as  great  and  as  necessary,  and  expressed  attri- 
butes as  divine,  as  those  of  the  Father  and  the  Son — 
ubiquity,  holiness,  truth,  infinite  energy,  ever  exercised 
and  ever  resultful."  ("Place  of  Christ  in  Modern 
Theology,"  page  490.) 

Our  work  must  begin  with  a  brief  study  of  Whit- 
sunday itself,  of  which  Bishop  Doane,  in  the  Mosaics, 
has  written  as  follows: 

"The  Church,  taken  out  of  the  side  of  the  Second  Adam  in 
the  deep  sleep  of  death,  got  on  Whitsunday  her  share  of  the  breath 
of  hie,  the  Spirit  given  without  measure  unto  Him,  and  became 
Eve  (life),  the  result  of  breathing,  the  spiritual  'mother  of  us 
all'  who  live  unto  God." 


94  THE  TRINITY  SEASON 

It  was  the  Epiphany  of  the  Third  divine  Person, 
completing  the  revelation  of  the  Triune  God.  It  was 
marked  by  many  signs,  insignia  of  a  kingly  Presence 
and  Power. 

"The  Holy  Ghost  was  never  incarnate,"  wrote  Dr.  Ewer, 
"but  there  is  a  certain  sense  in  which  we  may  regard  Pentecost 
as  the  birthday  of  the  Spirit;  for  it  was  then  that  He  descended 
from  Christ's  Body  Natural  upon  the  Catholic  Church,  and 
filled  it  with  His  presence,  His  light,  and  something  of  His  power. 
From  all  eternity  He  had  dwelt  in  God  the  Son.  Now,  when 
that  Son  became  incarnate,  it  could  not  but  be  that  the  Spirit 
should  pass  into  the  Human  Body  and  Soul  which  the  Divine 
Son  took  into  eternal  and  hypostatic  union  with  Himself. 

"Furthermore,  when  the  God-man  framed,  so  to  speak,  and 
united  the  Body  Mystical  to  Himself,  it  could  not  but  be  that 
the  Spirit  should  pass  into  and  dwell  in  It  also.  *  *  *  Thus 
at  Pentecost  the  springs  of  life  and  light  for  the  human  race 
were  extended  from  the  Natural  to  the  Mystical  framework  of 
the  Body  of  Christ.  *  *  *  As  the  Son  revealed  the  Father 
to  the  world,  so  it  was  one  of  the  functions  of  the  Spirit  to  reveal 
the  Son  to  the  Church. 

"Here  we  have  then  the  Catholic  Church  as  a  Body  illumined 
with  all  truth  and  designed  by  God  to  be  perpetually  present 
among  men  as  a  Divine  Teacher  of  the  world." 

Our  Lord  had  used  more  than  one  name  to  convey 
to  the  disciples  what  the  Spirit  would  be  to  the  Church 
Universal  and  to  the  world.  The  word  "teacher" 
did  not  cover  it.  "Comforter"  did  not,  especially 
in  the  familiar,  secondary  sense  of  one  who  consoles. 
Its  primary  sense  of  strength-giver  is  more  nearly 
adequate,  and  yet  not  entirely  so.  The  Greek  word 
"Paraclete"  is  not,  because  it  meant  one  who  has  been 
called,  or  sent,  to  stand  by  another,  to  support  and 
defend  him;  whereas  Christ  had  said  also,  "He  shall 
be  in  you." 


THE  SPIRIT'S  DIVINE  INSIGNIA  95 

A  divine  Person,  and  in  fact  the  Creator  and  indwell- 
ing Life  of  the  world  and  of  humanity,  could  only  be 
indicated  by  many  signs.  The  Dove  seen  at  Christ's 
baptism  meant  one  attribute, — that  of  gentleness; 
perhaps  also  the  brooding,  fostering  care  of  mother- 
hood. The  Water  of  the  feast  of  Tabernacles  signified 
inward  life  and  refreshment. 

Wind,  breath,  and  air,  are  one,  and  are  associated 
with  the  great  gift,  life.  The  Spirit  had  breathed  life 
into  man  at  the  beginning.  It  is  through  the  all- 
encompassing  atmosphere  that  He  sustains  vegetable, 
animal  and  human  life  to-day.  How  profound  the 
significance  of  the  Fire  to  disciples  who  had  been  with 
the  Lord!  When  they  beheld  tongues  or  forked  flames 
of  fire  above  each  others'  heads,  would  they  not  remem- 
ber Christ  saying,  "I  am  the  light  of  the  world,"  and, 
on  another  day,  "Ye  are  the  light  of  the  world"?  It 
was  in  the  Spirit  that  these  different  truths  became 
one. 

He  had  said,  "The  Spirit  shall  bear  witness  of  me," 
and  again,  "Ye  shall  receive  power  after  that  the 
Holy  Ghost  is  come  upon  you,  and  ye  shall  be  witnesses 
unto  me."  The  Spirit  has  come;  the  fire  over  their 
heads  means  that  He  has,  and  means  that  He,  and  they 
in  Him,  shall  take  up  the  work  of  testifying  to  Christ. 
With  the  light  there  comes  a  warmth  of  zeal  for  God 
and  for  man  such  as  the  world  has  never  seen.  In 
the  new,  heroic  courage  to  proclaim  Christ,  bear  all 
hardships,  suffer  death  itself  in  order  to  proclaim  Him, 
we  discover  similar  evidences  of  another  divine 
Epiphany. 

It  was  Light  of  Light  of  Light,  the  thrice  holy  light 
of  the  Godhead,  made  known  at  last.  Perhaps  the 


96  THE  TRINITY  SEASON 

greatest  wonder  consisted  in  the  clear  vision  and 
intense  feeling  of  the  Church's  universality,  at  once 
realized  by  all.  Christ  had  said,  "Greater  works 
[than  mine]  shall  he  do  who  believeth  on  me;  because 
I  go  to  the  Father;"  and  the  early  believers  did  per- 
form miracles;  yet  the  supreme  Pentecostal  miracle 
was  the  breaking  up  of  Jewish  exclusivism,  the  new 
longing  to  save  "all  that  were  afar  off,"  and  a  sublime 
effort  to  accomplish  it. 

To  take  in  the  truth  of  Whitsunday,  merely  in 
outline,  will  be  to  agree  with  Bishop  ReichePs  words: 

"Pentecost  is  the  most  important  festival  of  the  Christian 
Year,  and  our  thought  about  it  and  manner  of  celebrating  it 
inadequate  and  unworthy.  Looked  at  on  all  sides  and  in  its 
practical  relations  to  men  as  individuals,  to  mankind  as  a  whole, 
it  is  greater  than  Christmas  and  Epiphany,  greater  even  than 
Easter." 

The  Passover  was  distinguished  by  the  waving  of 
a  single  sheaf  of  wheat,  emblem  of  the  harvest's  begin- 
ning, and  such  was  our  Lord  Christ,  "the  firstfruits 
of  them  that  slept."  Pentecost,  calling  for  yet  deeper 
and  warmer  gratitude  for  the  harvest  completed,  was 
a  symbol  and  prophecy  of  the  glorious  ingathering 
of  an  entire  race,  risen  and  transfigured  in  Christ. 
It  is 

"Christ  for  the  world  we  sing," 

and  on  no  other  day  of  the  year  should  those  words 
of  Hymn  262  have  such  a  rich  meaning  for  us: 

"Yea,  West  and  East  the  harvest  men  went  forth; 
'We  come'  has  sounded  to  the  South  and  North; 
At  morn  sing  Alleluia." 


TRINITY  SUNDAY'S   GOSPEL  THE   NEW  BIRTH  97 

III 

Let  no  man  say,  then,  that  one  day's  services,  or 
one  day's  preaching, — were  Chrysostom  himself  the 
preacher, — or  twenty-five  such  days,  or  weeks,  can 
exhaust  the  riches  of  the  Pentecostal  Truth.  Con- 
vinced that  they  cannot,  and  opening  our  Prayer 
Books  at  Trinity  Sunday,  we  are  not  surprised  to  find 
that  it  is  the  Spirit's  day  almost  as  much  as  Whit- 
sunday itself.  The  Epistle  marks  the  Trinity  Truth; 
but  in  it  we  read  of  the  "seven  lamps  of  fire  burning 
before  the  throne,  which  are  the  seven  Spirits  of  God," 
— suggesting  the  various  operations  of  the  one  Spirit; 
while  the  Gospel  contains  Christ's  word  to  Nicodemus 
concerning  the  new  birth  "of  water  and  the  Spirit." 
The  first  morning  lesson  is  the  story  of  the  Creation, 
and  the  second  contains  the  Baptist's  announcement 
that  our  Lord  would  baptize  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
the  account  of  the  Spirit's  descent  upon  Christ  at  the 
Jordan. 

We  might  expect  this,  knowing  Trinity  Sunday  to 
have  been  anciently  regarded  as  the  Octave  of  Whit- 
sunday, but  what  of  the  next  Lord's  Day?  Here  the 
Holy  Ghost's  signature  is  not  written,  so  to  say,  over 
the  portal  of  the  service;  but  we  think  we  find  it, 
reading,  "Love  is  of  God;  and  every  one  that  loveth 
is  born  of  God,"  and  "Hereby  know  we  that  we  dwell 
in  him,  and  he  in  us,  because  he  hath  given  us  of  his 
Spirit,"  and  remembering  that  of  the  nine  fruits  of  the 
Spirit  love  is  by  St.  Paul  first  named. 

Love  being  first,  and  being  the  "fulfilling  of  the 
law,"  and  "the  greatest  thing  in  the  world,"  we  are 
not  surprised  to  find  it  spoken  of  two  Sundays  in  suc- 
cession. At  any  rate,  here  it  is  again  in  the  Epistle  for 

7 


98  THE  TRINITY  SEASON 

the  Second  Sunday,  and  here  again  is  the  Spirit  named. 
Hereby  we  know  that  Christ  abideth  in  us,  "by  the 
Spirit  which  he  hath  given  us." 

No  mention  is  made  of  the  Spirit  on  the  Third  Sun- 
day, nor  is  humility  anywhere  named  as  one  of  His 
nine  "fruits."  This  must  be  said,  however,  that 
humility  is  the  very  first  necessity  in  a  Christian.  It 
lies  at  the  base  of  all  the  Christian  graces,  and  is  well 
nigh  hardest  to  attain.  By  pride  the  angels  fell,  if  not 
man  also.  The  Good  Friday  Collect  implies  that 
Christ  saved  us  by  His  "great  humility."  It  is  because 
He  humbled  Himself  even  to  the  death  of  the  Cross, 
that  He  sits  as  Man  at  the  right  hand  of  God,  and  has 
earned  the  right  to  send  the  Spirit  of  His  own,  divine- 
human,  love  and  humility  to  us. 

Moreover,  in  the  Gospel  for  this  Sunday  we  find 
the  parable  of  the  woman  lighting  the  candle  and 
sweeping  the  house  to  find  the  one  lost  piece  of  silver. 
In  this  woman's  solicitude  to  recover  her  lost  possession 
more  than  one  commentator  has  thought  to  discover 
a  touching  image  of  that  sympathy  for  lost  mankind 
which  is  characteristic  of  the  Comforter. 

We  have  reached  the  Fourth  Sunday,  and  the  eye 
falls  on  the  word  "firstfruits,"  and  "the  Spirit,"  as 
also  on  "the  whole  creation."  How  closely  bound  up 
together  are  the  whole  creation  and  man,  the  child 
of  nature,  we  have  seen  in  Chapter  I.  There  is  a 
mysterious  connection  between  man's  sin  and  the 
present  condition  of  the  earth  and  of  the  entire  animate 
world.  In  a  very  important  sense  the  earth  is  redeemed 
with  man,  and  there  will  be  a  new  heaven  and  a  new 
earth  (Rev.  21:  1),  to  receive  the  new  humanity, 
transfigured  and  glorified  in  Christ. 


CHURCH  IN  DANGER  AND  PERSECUTION        99 

Now  the  Spirit  is — to  use  the  homely  phrase, — in  all 
this.  He  created  the  earth  and  man,  prepared  man  and 
the  whole  creation  for  Christ;  Himself  co-operated  in 
the  Son's  Incarnation,  and  sustained  and  empowered 
the  Son  as  Man  through  childhood  and  manhood,  and 
in  His  agony  and  patient,  holy  death.  When  "the 
adoption"  comes  for  which  earth  and  man  are  waiting, 
how  large  a  share  of  the  "glory  and  honour  and  thanks- 
giving" will  belong  to  the  gracious  Spirit! 

IV 

No  age  of  the  Church's  chequered  life  was  more 
momentous  than  that  of  the  persecutions;  and  it 
was  hi  that  period  that  the  Collect  for  the  Fifth  Sunday 
seems  to  have  originated.  Found  hi  all  three  ancient 
Sacramentaries,  it  is  a  cry  for  the  Peace  of  the  Church, 
that  it  may  joyfully  serve  its  Lord  "in  all  godly 
quietness."  In  the  words  of  St.  Peter:  "The  eyes  of 
the  Lord  are  over  the  righteous,  and  his  ears  are  open 
to  their  prayers,"  and  "If  ye  suffer  for  righteousness' 
sake,  happy  are  ye;  be  not  afraid  of  their  terror, 
neither  be  troubled;"  in  Christ's  word,  "Fear  not," 
to  Simon  Peter  in  the  sinking  vessel  on  the  lake, 
associated  with  the  thought  of  the  manifold  troubles 
of  those  early  Christian  centuries,  we  have  grave 
situations  depicted,  and  for  these  situations  divine 
comfort  promised  which  can  cheer  the  Church  and 
individual  Christians  in  every  age. 

The  Church  is  the  Spirit's  creation  and  the  Spirit's 
care,  and  our  cares  for  her  and  ourselves  we  are  to 
cast  upon  Him.  Care  turned  over  to  the  Comforter 
ceases  to  be  "an  enemy  to  life."  And  He,  as  the  Spirit 
of  Missions, — His  first  great  aim  being  that  of  catching 


100  THE  TRINITY  SEASON 

and  drawing  in  all  mankind  into  the  kingdom, — would 
not  have  us  fail  to  mark  in  this  connection  the  lesson 
in  this  Sunday's  Gospel.  The  multitude  of  fishes 
taken,  the  broken  net,  the  call  to  the  partners  for  help, 
the  two  ships  more  than  filled,  and  Christ's  final  word 
to  Simon,  "Henceforth  thou  shalt  catch  men,"  bear 
on  the  chief  purpose  for  which  "the  Spirit  was  given," 
and  for  which  the  Church  lives  and  moves  and  has  its 
being  in  Him. 

The  Sixth  and  Seventh  Sundays  suggest  the  Spirit 
indirectly,  yet  forcibly,  because  in  the  Epistle  for  the 
one  Baptism  is  the  subject,  and  in  the  other  occurs  the 
word  "fruit,"  always  suggestive  of  the  Giver  of  Life. 
"Ye  have  your  fruit  unto  holiness,  and  the  end  ever- 
lasting life,"  is  to  be  realized  by  us  only  through  our 
new  life  in  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  into  this  new  life  we 
are  initiated  by  our  baptism.  In  the  words  of  Dr. 
Du  Bose,  "the  substance  of  Christianity  is  to  realize 
our  baptism." 

Four  times  the  Spirit  is  named  in  the  Epistle  for  the 
Eighth  Sunday,  and  in  connection  with  the  Gospel 
truth  of  our  new  filial  life,  through  union  with  the 
eternal  Son.  To  join  us  to  the  ascended  Son  of  Man, 
forever  at  home  with  the  Father  in  heaven,  is  above 
all  other  things  the  Holy  Spirit's  delight,  and  to  preach 
this  new  life  of  adoption  and  freedom  was  the  special 
affair  of  Christ's,  and  His,  Apostle  to  the  nations  of  the 
West.  It  is  a  favorite  note  with  him,  and  clear  and 
strong  it  sounds  here  in  Romans,  like  the  keynote  of 
a  sweet  hymn-tune  played  on  a  cathedral  chime, 
heard  at  hours  of  prayer  across  the  house-tops  and 
fields:  "As  many  as  are  led  by  the  Spirit  of  God, 
they  are  the  sons  of  God, —  ye  have  received  the  Spirit 


THE  REALM  OF  GRACE  101 

of  adoption — The  Spirit  itself  beareth  witness   with 
our  spirit,  that  we  are  the  children  of  God." 

The  Epistle  for  the  Ninth  Sunday  contains  no  dis- 
tinct reference  to  the  Spirit,  yet  has  a  vital  connection 
with  the  realm  of  grace  over  which  He  presides.  The 
Corinthian  Christians  were  warned  not  to  tempt 
Christ  as  the  Israelites  had  tempted  Him  of  old. 
Although  "baptized  unto  Moses"  and  eating  "spiritual 
meat"  and  drinking  of  "the  spiritual  Rock  that  fol- 
lowed them,"  these  had  displeased  God,  and  "were 
overthrown  in  the  wilderness."  We  Christians  are 
taught  that  the  same  thing  can  happen  now  in  the 
New  Testament  Church,  enjoying  the  rich  means  of 
grace  which  those  ancient  supernatural  gifts  prefigured. 
It  is  upon  this  passage  that  Godet  has  written  the 
following  striking  comment: 

"It  has  been  justly  observed  that  in  this  passage  we  find  for 
the  first  time  the  combination  of  the  two  sacred  acts  of  Baptism 
and  the  Lord's  Supper  as  forming  a  complete  whole;  the  one 
representing  the  grace  of  entrance  into  the  new  life,  the  other 
the  grace  by  which  we  are  maintained  and  strengthened  in  it. 
The  combination  of  these  two  acts,  under  the  particular  name 
of  sacraments,  is  not  therefore  an  arbitrary  invention  of 
dogmatics." 

In  the  Epistle  for  the  Tenth  Sunday  the  note  of  the 
Spirit  is  struck  again,  not  merely  nine  times,  but  with 
singular  power.  Nowhere  hi  the  Scriptures  do  we 
receive  a  stronger  impression  of  the  divine  Personality 
of  the  Spirit.  Men  say,  "the  will  is  the  man,"  and  we 
receive  a  distinct  impression  of  the  Spirit's  Will,  where 
the  Apostle  declares  that  "no  man  can  say  that  Jesus 
is  the  Lord,  but  by  the  Holy  Ghost,"  and  that  all  the 
different  "gifts,"  wisdom,  knowledge,  faith,  healing, 


102  THE  TRINITY  SEASON 

and  other  endowments,  are  conferred  by  the  Spirit, 
"dividing  to  every  man  severally  as  He  will." 


Attention  should  be  invited  at  this  point  to  the 
existence  of  certain  groups  of  Sundays, — that  is  to  say, 
of  Sunday  Epistles.  We  have  passed  such  a  group 
from  Romans,  and  shall  find  one  from  Galatians,  and 
another  from  Ephesians.  Now  the  Tenth,  Eleventh 
and  Twelfth  Sundays  take  their  Epistles  from  First 
and  Second  Corinthians.  All  three  speak  of  gifts  of 
grace.  While  the  Tenth  deals  with  gifts  conferred  by 
the  Spirit  upon  different  members  of  the  "great  con- 
gregation," as  manifestations  of  the  Spirit's  presence, 
to  be  used  for  mutual  edification,  the  Eleventh  and 
Twelfth  speak  of  gifts  for  the  Ministry  in  particular. 
They  cover  what  is  now  designated  the  grace  of  Holy 
Orders. 

It  will  be  impossible  to  discuss  this  subject, — grace 
in  general,  grace  in  the  "diversities  of  gifts"  enjoyed 
by  the  many,  grace  given  to  the  sacred  Ministry. 
Enough  to  say,  that  wherever  the  word  occurs,  as, 
for  example,  in  the  Collect  for  the  Eleventh  Sunday, 
"Such  a  measure  of  thy  grace,"  we  are  to  remember 
not  Christ  alone,  but  the  Spirit  also.  The  Benediction 
contains  indeed  the  phrase,  "The  grace  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ";  is  it  not,  however,  His  Spirit's  special 
function  to  minister  this  grace  to  redeemed  men?  In 
the  language  of  Dr.  Downer: 

"As  soon  as  the  catastrophe  took  place  which  we  know  as  the 
Fall  of  Man,  a  second  or  new  creative  work  began.  This  is  the 
Economy  of  Grace,  or  the  manifestation  of  God's  love  and  mercy 
to  those  who  by  sin  had  forfeited  His  favour.  Here  the  Blessed 


THE  SPIRIT'S  NEW  AND  ABLE  MINISTRY      103 

Spirit  finds  His  truest  and  most  characteristic  sphere.  His 
re-creative  work  within  the  soul  of  man  began  at  once,  and  from 
the  first  it  was  coupled  with  the  promise  of  a  Mediator.  The 
first  phase  of  this  new  work  of  the  Spirit  is  Regeneration: — The 
Holy  Spirit  gives  effect  to  all  the  Church's  means  of  grace." 

As  to  the  grace  of  the  Apostolic  Ministry,  it  is  more 
than  interesting  to  note  how  the  theme  is  carried  over 
from  the  Eleventh  to  the  Twelfth  Sunday.  "By  the 
grace  of  God  I  am  what  I  am;  His  grace  which  was 
bestowed  upon  me  was  not  in  vain — I  laboured  more 
abundantly  than  they  all:  yet  not  I,  but  the  grace  of 
God  which  was  with  me,"  are  utterances  followed 
up  and  confirmed  on  the  next  Sunday  by  words  even 
more  forcible,  and  of  extreme  beauty,  from  the  Apostle's 
second  letter. 

We  need  to  weigh  the  words  as  truly  as  did  the 
Corinthians.  Many  who  are  in  Orders,  and  more  who 
are  not,  appreciate  the  spiritual  efficiency  and  "glory" 
of  the  New  Testament  ministry  as  little  as  did  they 
who  received  two  Apostolic  letters  on  the  subject; 
and  of  the  twenty-six  Sundays  after  Pentecost  the  two 
in  which  the  Spirit  in  the  Church  brings  them  before  us 
are  none  too  many. 

It  is  as  true  for  us  as  it  was  for  the  Apostle,  that  our 
sufficiency, — efficiency, — is  of  God.  We  too  are  "able" 
ministers  only  as  being  ministers  of  a  "new  testament." 
All  the  "life"  we  have,  all  the  power  we  have  to 
inspire  men,  to  communicate  life  in  Word  or  Sacrament, 
is  derived  from  the  Holy  Spirit,  or,  as  He  is  termed  in 
the  last  part  of  this  wonderful  chapter,  "the  Lord, 
the  Spirit." 

Except  in  that  the  power  to  do  unto  God  "true  and 
laudable  service"  is  the  gift  of  the  Pentecostal  Spirit, 


104  THE  TRINITY  SEASON 

and  that  we  pray  for  it  on  the  Thirteenth  Sunday, 
He  is  not  named  on  that  day.  On  the  Fourteenth  He 
is  suggested  as  the  Giver  of  all  life  in  nature  and  in  man 
by  the  word  "increase"  in  the  Collect,  and  named  in 
the  Epistle  five  times,  three  times  in  a  way  which 
emphasizes  His  personality.  The  thought  of  His 
enmity  to  human  flesh,  contending  against  His  spiritual 
motions,  is  distinctly  personal.  The  phrase,  "If  ye 
be  led  by  the  Spirit,"  gives  a  like  impression.  The 
word  "fruit,"  and  the  nine  fruits  named,  correspond 
to  the  words  "increase  of  faith,  hope  and  charity" 
in  the  Collect. 

VI 

The  last  nine  Sundays  may  be  considered  as  forming 
a  group,  or  as  a  "movement"  in  the  long  Pentecostal 
symphony.  The  keynote  of  this  movement  is  the 
thought  of  the  Church  as  a  Body.  We  hear  it  in  the 
Collects.  In  that  for  the  Fifteenth  Sunday  the  prayer 
is,  "Keep  thy  Church  with  thy  perpetual  mercy"; 
for  the  Sixteenth,  "Let  thy  continual  mercy  cleanse 
and  defend  thy  Church";  for  the  Twenty-second, 
"Lord,  we  beseech  thee  to  keep  thy  household  the 
Church  in  continual  godliness." 

Where  the  Church  is  not  actually  named,  one  can 
see  that  Christians  are  thought  of  chiefly  in  their 
relation  to  that  divine  Society  formed  at  Pentecost,  of 
which  the  Spirit  is  the  bond  of  union.  The  virtues 
and  graces  enjoyed  are  such  as  tend  to  conserve  the 
unity  and  foster  the  life  of  the  Body.  The  sins  reproved 
in  the  Epistles  are  sins  which  wound  and  rend  Christ's 
Body  and  make  it  the  opposite  of  winning  in  the  eyes 
of  the  world.  On  the  Fifteenth  Sunday  the  Church 


THE  SPIRIT  IN  A  CHURCH  UNIVERSAL        105 

is  prayed  for  as  endangered  by  the  "frailty"  of  its 
members.  It  is  a  "new  creation"  in  Christ,  and  "as 
many  as  walk  according  to  this  rule,  peace  be  on  them, 
and  mercy,  and  upon  the  Israel  of  God."  Not  "cir- 
cumcision," but  baptism  in  the  Spirit  has  created  this 
new  and  wider  Israel. 

Five  Sundays  the  Epistle  is  taken  from  Ephesians. 
The  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians  was  not  written,  as  Dean 
Alford  has  said,  on  account  of  peculiar  circumstances, 
but  addressed  to  Christians  in  a  cosmopolitan  city 
"as  a  type  and  sample  of  the  Church  Universal." 
It  was  intended  to  "set  forth  the  ground,  the  course, 
the  aim  and  end  of  the  Church  of  the  Faithful  in 
Christ."  Entirely  in  accord  with  this  purpose  is  the 
fact  noted  by  Dr.  Downer  (page  165)  that  it  has  several 
important  references  to  the  Spirit,  and  that  the  first 
of  them,  which  is  Pentecostal,  is  the  opening  passage, 
"The  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who 
blessed  us  in  all  blessing  of  the  Spirit,"  the  aorist  par- 
ticiple used  "pointing  to  the  great  act  by  which  this 
blessing  was  originally  conveyed  to  the  Church." 

In  all  these  Sunday  services,  and  in  fact  until 
Advent,  there  is  a  certain  depth  and  largeness  which 
belong  to  what  has  been  called  by  Alford  (Commentary, 
Vol.  Ill,  page  19)  the  Life  in  the  Holy  Spirit.  If  they 
may  be  rightly  compared  to  a  movement  in  a  sym- 
phony, largo  should  be  thought  of  as  inscribed  on 
nearly  every  page  of  the  music.  It  certainly  belongs 
over  the  passage  in  the  Epistle  for  the  Sixteenth  Sun- 
day, beginning,  "For  this  cause  I  bow  my  knees  unto 
the  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  and  ending, 
"Unto  Him  be  glory  in  the  Church  by  Christ  Jesus 
throughout  all  ages,  world  without  end." 


106  THE  TRINITY  SEASON 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Waterman,  of  the  Diocese  of  New 
Hampshire,  in  a  sermon  preached  at  the  Fortieth 
Anniversary  of  Bishop  Niles'  Consecration,  said: 

"Our  Bishop  has  taught  everywhere,  as  St.  Paul  taught,  that 
the  Church  is  a  Body.  It  is  not  merely  a  Society,  made  so  by 
the  fact  that  good  men  felt  the  need  of  coming  together  and 
co-operating  with  one  another.  It  is  not  merely  an  organization 
provided  by  men's  wisdom  with  more  or  less  useful  machinery. 
It  is  an  Organism.  It  is  a  Body.  No  less  a  word  will  do.  It 
is  a  Body,  made  so  by  the  fact  that  it  is  the  vehicle  of  a  super- 
natural life.  It  is  a  living  body,  it  is  the  Body  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  in  which  He  shows  Himself  alive  on  earth  to-day." 

This  is  the  truth  of  Ephesians,  and  in  Ephesians, 
as  in  the  New  Testament  generally,  the  Holy  Spirit  is 
the  Soul  and  Energy  of  this  corporate  Christ  life.  It 
is  the  truth  of  our  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  and  in  the 
eucharistic  services  of  the  Sundays  of  which  we  are 
now  speaking  all  of  "the  important  references  to  the 
Spirit  in  Ephesians"  are  found.  In  that  for  the 
Seventeenth  Sunday  is  the  passage  beginning,  "En- 
deavouring to  keep  the  unity  of  the  Spirit  in  the  bond 
of  peace."  In  that  for  the  Twentieth  we  have,  "My 
brethren,  be  strong  in  the  Lord,  and  in  the  power  of  his 
might.  *  *  *  Take  the  sword  of  the  Spirit  which 
is  the  word  of  God;  praying  always  with  all  prayer  and 
supplication  in  the  Spirit,  and  watching  thereunto 
with  all  perseverance  and  supplication  for  all  saints, 
and  for  me." 

The  Collect  for  the  Nineteenth  Sunday  is  noticeable 
not  merely  as  being  the  only  one  which  invokes  the 
aid  of  the  Spirit  by  name:  it  refers  to  Him  as  being 
already  present,  not  praying  that  He  may  be  "sent," 
or  crying,  "Come,  Holy  Spirit."  One  of  the  oldest 


THE  SPIRIT'S  ARMOUR.     GRIEVING  HIM      107 

Collects,  found  in  the  Sacramentary  of  Gelasius,  it 
reflects  the  original  thought  of  the  Church,  that,  sent 
to  dwell  in  the  Church,  the  Spirit  is  here.  If  now  He 
is  here,  by  Christ's  and  the  Father's  Will  especially 
near,^and  in  charge  of  us,  we  appreciate  the  better  the 
force  of  the  word,  "Grieve  not  the  Spirit,"  found  in  the 
Epistle  for  this  Nineteenth  Sunday.  Does  it  not  belong 
just  here?  Is  it  here  possibly  by  the  blessed  Spirit's 
own  arrangement?  Certainly  it  can  help  to  bring  home 
to  men  Bishop  Gore's  words,  that  "in  humanity  made 
after  the  divine  image,  it  was  the  original  intention 
that  the  Spirit  should  find  His  chiefest  joy,"  as  also 
Bishop  Webb's  touching  thought  of  His  self-humiliation 
in  connection  with  His  long  labor  of  love  in  human 
hearts,  comparable  even  to  the  self-humiliation  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Himself. 

In  the  Collect  for  the  Twenty-third  Sunday  we  pray 
that  God  may  hear  the  devout  prayers  of  His  Church, 
and  the  Epistle  speaks  of  the  heavenly  "citizenship" 
which  will  be  fully  realized  in  that  great  Day  of  the 
Lord,  when  the  body  of  our  humiliation  shall  (by  the 
Spirit's  power)  be  changed,  and  made  like  unto  the 
body  of  Christ's  glory. 

The  Epistle  to  the  Colossians  contains  but  one 
reference  to  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  we  find  it  here,  i.  e., 
in  the  Twenty-fourth  Sunday.  All  Saints'  Day  is 
near,  and  we  have  a  reference  to  "the  Father,  which 
hath  made  us  meet  to  be  partakers  of  the  inheritance 
of  the  saints  in  light,"  but  also,  be  it  observed,  to  the 
love  of  the  Colossians  for  "all  the  saints,"  that  is  to  say, 
in  the  Church  Militant,  and  to  their  "love  in  the  Spirit," 
reported  to  their  Apostle  by  Epaphras,  his  dear  fellow 


108  THE  TRINITY  SBASON 

servant,  and  a  faithful  minister  of  Christ  for  them.  The 
words  wisdom,  spiritual  understanding,  fruitful,  increas- 
ing in  the  knowledge  of  God,  suggest  the  Spirit;  and  more 
particularly  in  His  personal  relation  to  Confirmation. 
Then  comes  the  Sunday  next  before  Advent  with  its 
prayer  that  God's  people  may  plenteously  bring  forth 
"the  fruit  of  good  works"  and  by  Him  "be  plenteously 
rewarded." 

VII 

Throughout  the  first  ten  Sundays  of  this  Season  the 
Second  Morning  Lessons  are  taken  from  the  Acts. 
Called  in  the  New  Testament  Acts  of  the  Apostles, 
they  are  in  truth  Acts  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Dr.  A.  T. 
Pierson  wrote  in  the  Introduction  to  his  book: 

"This  brief  study  is  the  announcement  of  a  discovery  made  by 
the  writer,  that  this  narrative  is  a  revelation  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
in  His  relations  to  believers  as  Christ's  witnesses,  and  to  the  Church 
as  the  witnessing  body;  and  that  from  the  opening  chapter  on 
there  is  a  progressive  unfolding  of  this  great  theme."  - 

On  the  ten  Sundays  referred  to  there  is  a  noticeable 
selection  of  events,  which  are  distinct  turning-points 
in  what  Dr.  Pierson  characterizes  as  the  Active  Mission 
and  Ministry  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  the  Divine  Paraclete. 
First,  it  is  Philip  planting  the  Church  in  Samaria  and 
baptizing  an  Ethiopian  eunuch.  We  then  have  the 
conversion  of  the  future  Apostle  to  the  nations  of  the 
West.  We  witness  next  the  baptism  of  Cornelius  the 
centurion  and  his  household  by  St.  Peter,  the  first 
reception  of  Gentiles  into  the  Universal  Church. 
The  preaching  of  the  Gospel  in  Antioch  follows;  and  on 
the  Fifth  Sunday  we  are  with  Paul  and  Barnabas  in 
Lystra  and  Derbe, 


THE  ACTS  OF  THE  SPIRIT  109 

On  the  Sixth  Sunday  we  are  at  Jerusalem,  at  the 
First  Council  of  the  Church,  which  settles  the  vital 
question  concerning  the  attitude  to  be  assumed  toward 
the  Gentile  element  in  regard  to  circumcision,  and 
sends  out  the  letter  with  the  decision,  and  the  sentence, 
"It  seemed  good  to  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  to  us." 
Already  the  next  Sunday  we  are  with  St.  Paul  on 
Mars'  Hill,  and  hear  him  tell  the  men  of  Athens,  how 
God,  the  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth,  dwelling  in  temples 
not  made  with  hands,  has  made  of  one  blood  all  the 
nations  of  the  earth;  tell  them  of  a  judgment  day,  and 
of  a  Man  appointed  to  be  the  judge,  whom  God  has 
raised  from  the  dead. 

Each  Sunday  brings  us  to  a  new  turning-point  in 
the  first  chapter  of  the  long  story  of  Missions  in  For- 
eign Lands,  under  the  guidance  and  in  the  power  of  the 
mighty  Spirit.  The  rapidity  of  our  progress  in  the 
reading  of  it  may  serve  to  remind  us  of  the  marvellous 
speed  with  which  the  Church  was  borne  along  by  the 
breath  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  those  days  after  Pentecost. 
On  the  Eighth  Sunday  we  are  in  Ephesus;  on  the 
Ninth  in  Caesarea,  where  St.  Paul  answers  for  his  life 
and  doctrine  before  the  noble  Felix;  on  the  Tenth 
Sunday,  last  in  this  series,  we  come  to  one  of  the  great 
scenes  in  the  Apostle's  missionary  experience,  his 
defense  before  King  Agrippa. 

VIII 

Two  points  are  likely  to  suggest  themselves  to  a 
thoughtful  worshipper  in  the  long  season  which  we 
have  been  studying.  One  is,  that  the  order  of  the 
truths  presented  to  us  is  much  the  same  as  the  order  in 
the  last  section  of  the  Catholic  Creeds.  We  have 


110  THE  TRINITY  SEASON 

first  the  Holy  Spirit  Himself,  "the  Lord,  and  Giver  of 
Life,  who  proceedeth  from  the  Father  and  the  Son." 
We  behold  Him,  worshipped  and  glorified,  speaking 
by  the  Old  Testament  Prophets,  and  more  fully  and 
clearly  by  the  inspired  writers  of  the  Gospels  and 
Epistles.  Then  follows  the  "one  Catholic  and  Apos- 
tolic Church,"  which  was  by  His  divine  instrumentality 
conceived  and  born  in  our  humanity,  and  which  He 
informs  and  guides;  and  here,  as  in  the  Creed,  Baptism 
for  the  Remission  of  Sins  has  its  due  place,  "the  reali- 
zation" of  which,  as  bringing  mankind  into  living 
union  with  the  Son  of  Man  in  heaven,  "is  the  sub- 
stance of  Christianity."  The  Resurrection  of  the 
dead,  and  the  Life  of  the  world  to  come,  round  up  the 
teachings  of  the  Christian  Year  just  as  they  do  the 
historic  formula  of  our  Belief. 

The  other  thought  will  be  somewhat  like  this, — the 
Spirit  of  God  is  the  Creator  both  of  nature  and  of  man, 
the  immanent  presence  and  energy  of  God  in  both. 
Of  the  fruits  of  my  orchard  and  the  flowers  in  my  garden 
and  of  the  increase  of  faith,  hope  and  love  in  the  garden 
of  my  heart,  He  is  alike  the  divine  author.  Such 
words  as  increase  and  firstfruits,  frequent  in  these 
Summer  and  Autumn  services,  as  also  the  Epistle, 
from  St.  James,  in  the  beautiful  Thanksgiving  Day 
Service,  are  there  in  part  to  remind  me  that  the 
various  beneficent  works  of  the  mighty  Third  Person  in 
the  kingdom  of  nature  are  one  long  parable  of  His  more 
blessed  and  glorious  operations  in  the  kingdom  of  grace. 

IX 

What  now  are  the  results  of  our  investigation? 
We  will  look  at  them  primarily  from  the  point  of  view 


RESULTS  OF  THE  INVESTIGATION  111 

of  figures;  and  first  as  regards  the  Lessons.  The 
Holy  Spirit  is  referred  to  by  name  in  the  Sunday 
Lessons  from  Advent  to  Trinity  fifty-six  times,  whereas 
He  is  named  in  the  Trinity  Season,  on  seventeen  Sun- 
days, only  thirty-one  times.  It  will  be  remembered, 
however,  that  a  large  proportion  of  the  fifty-six  ref- 
erences either  occur  in  connection  with  the  Nativity 
of  our  Lord,  and  of  John  Baptist,  or  consist  of  promises 
of  the  Spirit  made  by  Christ  just  before  His  Death  and 
Ascension,  promises  fulfilled  after  Pentecost.  More- 
over, the  Second  Lessons  of  ten  Sunday  mornings 
after  Trinity,  as  we  have  been  noting,  relate  to  Acts  of 
the  Church  under  the  continual  influence  of  the  per- 
sonal Spirit,  often  unnamed. 

In  the  Collects  and  Epistles  and  Gospels  of  the 
different  Seasons  from  Advent  to  Trinity  the  Spirit  is 
mentioned  thirteen  times,  whereas  He  is  named  forty- two 
times  hi  those  of  the  remaining  Sundays  of  the  year. 

When  we  give  this  last-mentioned  fact  its  due  weight, 
looked  at  simply  in  the  way  of  numbers,  and  add  the 
more  important  fact  of  the  inward  significance  of  the 
references,  as  I  have  tried  to  exhibit  them  hi  the  fore- 
going pages;  and  lastly  when  careful  attention  is  given 
to  the  teachings  concerning  the  Spirit  in  relation  to  the 
Church  and  to  individual  believers,  hi  the  Morning 
Lessons  for  the  Sixteenth,  Twentieth,  Twenty-first, 
Twenty-third,  and  Twenty-sixth,  and  in  the  Evening 
Lessons  for  the  Twenty-third,  Twenty-fourth  and 
Twenty-fifth  Sundays,  it  becomes  difficult  to  under- 
stand expressions  used  by  certain  writers  on  the 
Prayer  Book,  while  commenting  on  this  Season. 

For  example,  can  these  Twenty-five  Sundays  be 
rightly  designated  "uneventful"?  It  is  true  that 


112  THE  TRINITY  SEASON 

no  new  event  is  related,  worthy  in  itself  to  be  compared 
with  the  Nativity,  the  Crucifixion,  or  the  Resurrection, 
of  our  Lord.  No  star  rises  on  faith's  horizon  which 
matches  the  star  of  the  Spirit's  own  Epiphany.  But 
so  glorious  is  His,  the  Whitsunday,  manifestation, 
that  the  world  and  even  the  Church  which  He  founded 
have  not  yet  rightly  estimated  the  power  and  the  beauty 
of  its  light.  May  not  the  season  we  have  been  study- 
ing seem  uneventful  to  many,  because  in  general 
"study  of  the  Person  and  Work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  has 
been  neglected  by  the  Church  throughout  her  history"? 

The  more  men  do  study  it,  the  more  thoroughly 
they  will  be  convinced  that  twenty-five  Sundays  in 
the  year,  nay,  fifty-two,  are  none  too  many  to  exploit 
the  treasures  of  meaning  which  the  Pentecostal  Event 
possesses  for  mankind.  Indeed  it  is  less  the  meaning 
than  the  dynamic  of  Whitsunday  which  Christians 
come  short  of  appreciating.  The  instant  that  one  of 
those  mysterious  forces  of  nature  which  man  is  learning 
to  harness  to  the  chariot  of  progress  in  modern  times 
is  discovered,  he  sets  himself  to  work,  to  learn  how 
best  to  set  it  to  work  for  human  advantage.  Yet 
no  force  ever  discovered  meant  so  much  to  the  world 
as  the  new  spiritual  power  of  Pentecost.  The  phi- 
losopher Comte  wrote  on  "Social  Dynamics";  but  the 
true  social  dynamic  has  been  the  motive  of  Christian 
love  and  fellowship,  and  of  undying  hope  for  our  race, 
born  on  the  first  Whitsunday. 

The  new  force  with  which  believers  in  Christ  then 
came  into  contact,  and  which  influenced  them  to  a 
degree  in  which  His  own  presence  and  teaching  had 
not,  evidencing  the  truth  of  His  saying,  that  it  was 
expedient  for  them  that  He  should  go  away,  was 


THE  NEW  SPIRITUAL  DYNAMIC  113 

interpreted  at  once  by  a  new  heroic  behaviour  and 
action.  Selfishness  gave  way  to  love,  even  a  love  like 
unto  that  of  the  Lord  Himself.  It  was  this  new  love 
and  courage  in  the  Spirit,  which  wrought  the  acts  of  the 
Apostles,  and  began  at  once  to  change  the  face  of  the 
earth,  and  create  a  new  civilization.  It  resembled 
that  other  force  of  the  Spirit,  gravitation,  in  that  it 
drew  men  together  in  the  Lord,  as  they  had  not  been 
drawn  even  by  Christ  Himself,  in  the  flesh.  It  was 
like  the  mystery  we  call  life,  but  a  spiritual  life.  There 
was  a  new  and  deeper  consciousness  of  sin,  a  new  under- 
standing of  the  soul's  need  of  a  Saviour,  and  of  the 
ascended  Lord  as  being  that  Saviour. 

It  is  not  easy  to  comprehend,  that  a  writer  on  the 
Christian  Year  who  certainly  believed  in  the  Holy 
Ghost  as  the  Giver  of  life,  and  who  had  already  spoken 
of  the  Trinity  Season  as  a  "continuous  commemoration 
of  the  Spirit,"  should  afterward  speak  of  the  second 
half  of  the  year  as  "devoted  to  duty  primarily,  and  to 
doctrine  only  as  reduced  to  practical  piety,"  say,  that 
the  Christian  Year  is  "divided  between  the  Creed  and 
the  Decalogue,"  say,  that  in  the  earlier  half  of  the 
year  "our  affections  are  warmed  and  our  feelings 
healthfully  excited,"  but  in  the  latter  half  "no  such 
impulse  is  supplied, — our  spiritual  joys  must  be  purely 
those  of  faith  and  duty, — physical  as  well  as  spiritual 
efforts  must  be  made  if  we  would  keep  our  souls  alive 
and  growing." 

Is  not  the  "doctrine"  of  an  ever-present,  omnipotent 
Spirit  a  glorious  doctrine  in  itself,  an  essential  and 
most  important  part  of  the  Creed?  Is  He  not  the 
immediate  Source  of  Love,  and  Joy,  of  Life  and  spirit- 
ual spontaneity?  The  Decalogue  was  given  on  Mt. 

8 


114  THE  TRINITY  SEASON 

Sinai,  and  our  Whitsunday  Lesson  teaches, — all 
through  the  following  weeks  we  are  to  remind  ourselves 
of  it, — that  in  the  Church  of  Christ  we  are  not  come 
unto  Mt.  Sinai,  but  unto  Mt.  Sion,  the  city  of  the 
living  God,  the  heavenly  Jerusalem. 

The  law  is  good,  but  as  a  schoolmaster  to  bring  us 
to  Christ,  and  the  Spirit  of  Christ  is  the  Spirit  of 
sonship,  and  of  that  love  which  is  in  itself  the  fulfilling 
of  the  law.  Rightly  understood,  faith,  love,  filial 
obedience,  all  the  Christian  graces,  live  and  grow  in 
us,  in  the  Spirit,  as  the  grass  and  the  grain  and  the 
roses  grow  in  the  Summer  sunshine,  also  in  the  Spirit. 
Through  the  long  Whitsuntide  we  go  to  school  to  the 
Spirit,  and  it  is  going  to  school  to  our  mother,  that 
we  may  come  by  the  filial  spirit,  as  it  were,  by  breathing 
it  in.  Duty,  when  filial,  knows  no  effort.  Brotherly 
and  sisterly  duty  knows  no  effort.  That  was  a  favorite 
story  of  the  late  beloved  Bishop  of  Pennsylvania,  of 
the  little  girl  seen  carrying  a  robust  specimen  of  baby- 
hood, who,  asked  whether  her  burden  was  not  heavy, 
answered,  "Na,  it's  me  brother." 

The  truth  that  duty  done  in  the  filial  spirit  is  trans- 
figured, is  admirably  brought  out  by  the  development 
of  thought  in  Wordsworth's  Ode  to  Duty.  The  first 
line, 

"Stern  daughter  of  the  Voice  of  God," 

has  the  effect  to  repel  us.  Why  should  this  daughter 
of  heaven  be  stern?  Already  in  the  second  verse  there 
is  a  warmer  light : 

"There  are  who  ask  not  if  thine  eye 
Be  on  them    *    *    * 
Glad  hearts!    without  reproach  or  blot; 
Who  do  thy  work  and  know  it  not." 


SONSHIP  is  FREEDOM  AND  JOY  115 

The  third  verse  is  more  winning  still : 

"Serene  will  be  our  days  and  bright, 

And  happy  will  our  nature  be, 
When  love  is  an  unerring  light, 
And  joy  its  own  security." 

And  what  of  the  sixth? 

"Stern  lawgiver!   Yet  thou  dost  wear 

The  Godhead's  most  benignant  grace; 
Nor  know  we  anything  so  fair 

As  is  the  smile  upon  thy  face: 
Flowers  laugh  before  thee  in  their  beds, 
And  fragrance  in  thy  footing  treads; 
Thou  dost  preserve  the  stars  from  wrong, 
And  the  most  ancient  heavens,  through  thee 
are  fresh  and  strong." 

Wordsworth  was  a  Christian;  and  perhaps  unknown 
to  himself  the  truth  of  the  Spirit  lay  between  all  these 
lines.  Whether  it  did  or  not,  the  fact  is, — and  the 
New  Testament  and  the  Prayer  Book  are  full  of  it, — 
Duty  would  wear  no  smile,  nor  would  fragrance  tread 
in  her  footing,  the  example  of  the  ever  punctual  sun 
and  planets  would  have  no  influence, — nor  would  that 
set  us  by  the  blessed  Christ  Himself, — had  not  His 
Spirit  descended.  As  Bishop  Reichel  says  ("Cathedral 
and  University  Sermons,"  page  191) :  r 

"It  is  the  inner  spirit, — first  our  own,  and  then  the  Spirit  of 
God  acting  on  and  through  our  own, — that  makes  the  life  and 
death  and  resurrection  of  the  Christ  anything  more  to  us  than 
a  picture  is  to  a  blind  man  or  a  symphony  of  music  is  to  a 
deaf  man." 

"The  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter,"  as  regards  the 
latter  half  of  the  Christian  year,  can  for  us  "members 


116  THE  TRINITY  SEASON 

of  Christ  and  children  of  God"  scarcely  be  this,  that 
we  have  now  simply  to  "fear  God  and  keep  His  com- 
mandments." In  this  era  of  the  enabling,  trans- 
forming, Spirit  such  were  "a  lame  and  impotent 
conclusion."  To  enter  the  period  of  which  Whitsun- 
day is  the  gateway,  over  which  the  legend  is  inscribed, 
Love,  Joy  and  Peace  in  Christ  the  Son,  is  like  crossing 
into  the  promised  land;  "of  brooks  of  water,  of  foun- 
tains and  depths  that  spring  out  of  valleys  and  hills, 
of  wheat  and  barley,  of  oil  olive  and  honey." 

The  fountains  by  which  the  soul  of  the  believer  is 
xefreshed  are  not  like  the  quickly  dried  springs  which 
descend  the  rocky  sides  of  Horeb.  They  are  inex- 
haustible, living,  waters  which  gush,  as  it  were,  from 
under  the  walls  of  New  Jerusalem.  It  is  Hephzibah's 
land,  it  is  Beulah,  "for  the  Lord  delighteth  in  her,  and 
her  land  shall  be  married."  Her  bridal  presents  are 
the  inward  spiritual  gifts  earned  by  her  Lord's  Labor 
and  Passion  of  thirty-three  years,  and  brought  to  her 
from  on  high  by  the  gracious  and  loving  Spirit. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  we  need  to  enter  upon 
such  a  season  of  privilege  desiring  these  inner  gifts. 
About  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago  John  Berridge, 
Vicar  of  Everton,  wrote: 

"Every  one  who  is  born  of  God  is  made  to  hunger  for  implanted 
holiness,  as  well  as  to  thirst  for  imputed  righteousness.  They 
want  a  meetnesa  for  glory,  as  well  as  a  title  to  it;  and  know 
they  could  not  bear  to  live  with  God,  unless  renewed  in 
His  image." 

It  is  the  Trinity  Season  which  more  than  all  the 
others  appears  and  appeals  to  us,  as  a  period  of  im- 
planted holiness;  when  week  by  week  the  Prayer 


CROSSING  INTO  A  PROMISED  LAND  117 

Book  Christian  will  hope  to  realize  in  every  thought 
and  motive  the  truth  of  the  Apostle's  words  (1st  Cor. 
1  :  30):  "Of  him  are  ye  in  Christ  Jesus,  who  of  God 
is  made  unto  us  wisdom,  and  righteousness,  and  sanc- 
tification,  and  redemption;"  a  Season  when,  mead- 
ows and  trees  turning  green,  and  then  gold,  "the  King's 
daughter"  will  be  moved  thereby  to  make  good  progress 
in  becoming  "all  glorious  within."  Green,  the  students 
of  ecclesiastical  colors  tell  us,  symbolized  in  the 
Eastern  Church  the  Life  of  Grace;  and  Nature  for 
her  part  now  decks  her  outdoor  altar  to  the  Spirit  in 
green.  Putting  on,  as  it  were,  her  broad  green  stole,  she 
preaches,  in  union  with  the  Church,  of  grace,  and  all 
the  blessed  fruits  of  it,  in  the  Spirit's  sons  and  daughters. 

Probably  few  readers  of  this  book, — whether  clergy- 
men or  laymen, — will  not  plead  guilty  to  a  desultory, 
unsystematic,  habit  of  effort  and  prayer  in  the  Trinity 
Season.  All  of  us  are  more  or  less  accustomed  to  lay 
aside  ordered  and  definite  reflection  upon  religious 
truth  and  conduct  until  the  trumpet  of  Advent  sounds 
again.  This  results  in  a  serious  loss  of  growth  and 
power.  Our  study  must  convince  us  that  such  is  not 
the  conception  and  purpose  of  the  Spirit  as  revealed 
in  the  Prayer  Book.  We  are  meant  to  be, — He  is 
ready  to  help  us  to  be, — growing  Christians,  and  to 
arrive  at  each  new  Advent  wiser  and  stronger.  How 
is  it  with  us?  Many,  it  may  be,  have  come  upon  a 
tree  cut  down  in  forest  or  orchard,  which  sawed  and 
not  hewn  shows  all  its  rings.  A  little  difficult  to  dis- 
tinguish at  the  centre,  they  become  better  defined  and 
easier  to  count  as  one  proceeds  outward;  and  each 
ring  tells  of  another  year  of  growth. 

Is  it  this  way  with  the  years  of  our  life  in  Christ? 


118         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

Can  the  Spirit  who  dwells  in  us,  and  longs  to  be  the 
strength  of  this  life,  discover  any  rings?  And  do  these 
show  thicker,  because  each  season  we  have  been  more 
rapidly  growing  in  grace,  and  in  the  knowledge  of  our 
Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ? 


THE  TRINITY  SEASON— (CONTINUED) 

He  (the  Spirit)  dwelleth  with  you,  and  shall  be  in  you. — 
John  14  :  17. 

I  tell  you  the  truth;  It  is  expedient  for  you  that  I  go  away. — 
John  16  :  7. 

When  he  the  Spirit  of  truth  is  come,  he  shall  guide  you  into 
all  the  truth.— John  16  :  13. 

I  shall  show  you  plainly  of  the  Father. — John  16  :  25. 

As  many  as  are  led  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  they  are  the  sons 
of  God.— Rom.  8  :  14. 

Unto  you  it  is  given  to  know  the  mystery  of  the  kingdom 
of  God.— Mark  4  :  11. 

The  Spirit  searcheth  the  deep  things  of  God. — 1st  Cor.  2  :  10. 

Teach  us  to  know  the  Father,  Son, 
And  thee,  of  both,  to  be  but  One. 

— Veni,  Creator  Spiritus. 

No  man  can  say  that  Jesus  is  the  Lord,  but  by  the  Holy 
Ghost.— 1st  Cor.  2  :  10. 

Whitsunday,  as  connected  with  Trinity  Sunday  and  leading 
to  it,  seems  to  me  to  contain  the  most  marvellous  and  blessed 
witness  of  the  whole  year,  and  that  without  which  all  the  rest 
would  be  in  vain. — F.  D.  Maurice. 

The  great  intellectual  struggle  of  our  day  turns  mainly  on 
the  question  whether  there  is  a  Holy  Ghost. — Thirl waU. 


PURPOSE  OF  PRECEDING  CHAPTERS  119 

The  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit  has  been,  hardly  less  than  that 
of  the  Resurrection  of  our  Lord,  too  much  neglected  in  the 
theology  of  our  time. — Milligan. 

A  science  without  mystery  is  unknown;  a  religion  without 
mystery  is  absurd. — Darwin. 

Life  precedes  organization. — Huxley. 

Flower  in  the  crannied  wall, 

I  pluck  you  out  of  the  crannies; 

Hold  you  here,  root  and  all,  in  my  hand, 

Little  flower:  but  if  I  could  understand 

What  you  are,  root  and  all,  and  all  in  all, 

I  should  know  what  God  is,  and  man  is. 

I  feel  that  we  shall  never  see  a  real  revival  in  the  Church,  or 
in  any  individual  soul,  until  the  "Veni  Creator"  is  said  as  a 
real  prayer  addressed  to  a  real  Person. — Bishop  Ingram. 

The  Church  Catholic  is  the  Spirit-bearing  body,  the  special 
home  of  the  Holy  Spirit's  activities.  *  *  *  Amongst  the 
gravest  signs  of  the  times  is  the  attempt  which  is  being  made 
to  eliminate  the  idea  of  the  Church  in  education.  *  *  *  In 
this  gift  of  all  the  gifts,  the  Holy  Spirit,  resides  the  secret  of  the 
harmonizing  of  Reason  and  Revelation.  He  will  help  us  to 
wait  in  patience  for  the  reconciliation  of  seemingly  hopeless 
antagonisms,  show  us  that  religion  has  everything  to  hope  for, 
and  nothing  to  fear  in,  scientific  conclusions.  Above  all,  He 
will  enable  us  to  see  that  both  Reason  and  Revelation  come 
from  the  same  Giver  of  all  good  gifts;  that  the  one  is  the  com- 
plement of  the  other;  that  they  are  the  truest  of  friends;  that 
the  God  of  Nature  is  the  God  of  Grace,  and  that  what  God  hath 
joined  together  man  must  not  put  asunder. — Holden. 

The  Triune  God  of  the  Nicene  Creed  is  the  only  God  in  which 
modern  science  has  left  it  possible  to  believe. — Fulton. 

The  purpose  in  what  has  been  written  in  the  pre- 
ceding chapters  will  not  have  been  attained,  unless 
my  readers  have  received  a  somewhat  clearer  idea  of 
the  personality  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  of  His  agency 
in  the  creation  and  development  of  our  venerable 


120         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

Services,  and  finally  of  the  fact  that  the  so-named 
Trinity  Season,  in  our  Book,  is  substantially  a  continu- 
ous commemoration  of  the  Epiphany  of  the  divine 
Paraclete  and  of  the  various  "gifts"  He  brought,  and 
is  now  year  by  year  and  day  by  day  dispensing  to  the 
Church  and  to  mankind,  for  the  sake  and  hi  the  name 
of  the  ascended  and  glorified  Son  of  Man. 

It  will  perhaps  be  helpful  to  consider  further  what 
these  three  facts  practically  mean,  or  should  mean,  to 
the  Christian  mind  and  heart,  and  to  the  entire  race; 
and  how  such  a  Season, — equal  in  length  to  the  other 
Seasons  of  the  Year  of  Christ  united,  may  be  most 
profitably  commemorated.  If  the  Holy  Ghost  is  in 
truth  the  Lord,  and  Life-giver,  the  Vicar  of  the  unseen 
Christ,  and  if  it  was  really  "expedient"  for  us  that 
the  Lord  Jesus  should  "go  away,"  in  order  that  He 
might  thus  be  manifested,  and  if  Whitsunday  does 
actually  "contain  the  most  marvellous  and  blessed 
witness  of  the  whole  year,"  and  is  the  spiritual  dynamic 
for  all  the  needs  in  all  the  years,  till  the  great  Head  of 
the  Church  shall  come  again,  then  certain  points  are 
evident.  It  is  clear  that  not  a  single  Truth,  however 
glorious  and  convincing  in  itself,  revealed  to  man  in  the 
teachings  of  those  other  Seasons,  is  so  glorious,  and  so 
effective  to  win,  and  to  sway  humanity,  as  it  becomes 
when  brought  into  connection  with  the  truth  of  this 
blessed  Season. 

The  saying  in  1st  Corinthians  12  :  3,  "No  man  can 
say  that  Jesus  is  the  Lord,  but  by  the  Holy  Ghost," 
contains  a  principle  capable  of  wide  application.  No 
man  can  say,  i.  e.,  believe  in  his  heart  and  witness  to 
his  brother  men,  that  the  Christmas  truth  is  true  and 
Jesus  Christ,  God's  only  Son,  "  was  made  very  man  of 


WHY  CHRIST'S  GOING  WAS  EXPEDIENT      121 

the  substance  of  the  Virgin  Mary  his  mother,  without 
spot  of  sin,  to  make  us  clean  from  all  sin,"  without  the 
help  of  the  Holy  Ghost  by  whose  personal  "operation" 
the  blessed  Nativity  took  place. 

The  Epiphany  truth,  that  Christ  is  very  God  and  a 
Universal  Saviour,  was  made  known  to  St.  Peter  by 
the  Spirit, — our  Lord  implied  this,  saying:  "Flesh  and 
blood  hath  not  revealed  it  unto  thee,  but  my  Father 
which  is  in  heaven, — "  was  by  the  Spirit  made  known 
to  St.  Thomas  before  the  Ascension,  in  the  same 
supernatural  way;  and  again  was  made  known  gradu- 
ally in  its  rich  fulness,  and  in  all  its  wide  bearings  upon 
philosophic  thought,  to  St.  John,  that  in  his  old  age 
he  might  bear  personal  witness  to  it,  to  the  Church 
then  coming  in  contact  with  great  systems  of  thought. 
And  no  man,  woman  or  child  in  the  world  to-day 
believes  it  without  the  aid  of  the  self-same  Spirit. 

So  is  it  with  the  other  side  of  Christ's  Epiphany, 
namely,  His  sacred,  spotless,  Humanity, — without 
which  there  were  no  salvation  for  the  great  human 
family, — brought  out  by  St.  Luke,  the  converted 
"pagan,"  in  what  Renan  has  called  "the  most  beautiful 
book  in  the  world."  This  human  side  means  more  and 
more  to  us  every  year.  It  was  a  truth  only  partially 
developed  in  the  early  days,  and  it  is  not  yet  developed 
in  its  fulness  and  beauty,  or  seen  in  its  many  practical 
bearings.  The  Spirit  it  was  who  in  co-operation  with 
the  Father  and  the  Son  wrought  the  wonder  of  that 
perfect  humanity  in  the  Person  of  Christ  Jesus,  and 
He  alone  can  make  it  a  reality  to  human  faith. 

The  divine  Fatherhood,  a  New  Testament  revelation, 
and  a  truth  exhibited  on  nearly  every  page  of  the  Prayer 
Book, — which  Bishop  Westcott  somewhere  says  is 


122        THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

perhaps  the  chief  message  of  our  Church  to  the  men  of 
this  day, — is  easier  to  read  and  hear  of  than  to  embrace 
with  the  heart.  But  the  Third  Person  is  pre-eminently 
"the  Spirit  of  adoption."  By  Him,  it  reads,  we  cry, 
Abba,  Father  (pater)  in  our  hearts,  to  the  One  universal 
Father.  At  first  we  almost  necessarily  miss  the  point  of 
the  two  names,  the  one  Hebrew  and  the  other  Greek, 
thus  joined  together.  Abba  spoken  by  Hebrews  and  the 
many  races  akin  to  them,  and  pater,  padre,  pere,  vater, 
father,  spoken  by  Greek,  Roman,  Italian,  Spanish, 
French,  German  and  English  tongues,  sum  up  prac- 
tically all  mankind.  It  is  the  Spirit's  delight,  and  He 
is  that  divine  Person  whose  function  it  is,  "to  make 
all  men"  see,  in  this  Pentecostal  era,  that  God  is  the 
Father  of  all,  and  has  redeemed  us  all  in  His  Son. 

And  so  is  it  with  the  complementary  truth  of  Christ's 
Sonship,  to  come  into  vital  union  with  which  is  Life 
and  Freedom,  is  Rest  and  Peace,  while  to  fall  out  of  it 
into  the  legal,  unfilial,  life,  is  to  "fall  from  grace." 
"Come  unto  me, — I  will  give  you  rest, — my  yoke 
is  easy,  my  burden  light"  (Matt.  11  :  28-30)  as  the 
context  shows,  refers  to  the  filial  relation  which  is 
first  His,  and  then  ours  in  Him.  But  it  is  the  Spirit 
who  can  persuade  us  of  it,  and  enable  us  to  be  sons 
indeed. 

Of  that  supreme  Gospel  Mystery,  or  secret,  which 
God  permits,  yes,  invites  us  to  look  into  and  "know,"- 
imparting  "wisdom  and  understanding"  that  we  may 
in  some  sort  apprehend  it, — the  truth  of  the  Holy 
Trinity,  the  same  is  to  be  said.  It  is  an  exalting  and 
a  comforting  truth  even  mentally.  It  is  not  contra- 
dictory to  our  reason,  approached  as  it  should  be 
"through  the  .doctrine  of  the  subordination  of  the  Son 


THE  TRINITY  A  MYSTERY  SHOWN  123 

and  the  Spirit  to  the  Father"  (Mason,  "Faith  of  the 
Gospel,"  page  51).  Canon  Mason  writes  also: 

"If  we  say  that  before  creation  was,  the  infinite  love  of  God 
was  infinitely  expended  upon  Himself,  we  cannot  but  feel  that 
such  an  expression  would  be  shocking  to  all  our  best  instincts, 
if  (as  Arius  taught)  God  is  a  single  person.  A  monstrous  selfish- 
ness is  the  only  picture  which  such  language  could  suggest. 
It  can  only  be  morally  true  to  say  that  God  loves  Himself,  if 
there  be  eternally  within  the  Divine  nature  a  real  Distinction  of 
Persons,  whereby  one  Divine  Person  may  lavish  the  infinite 
wealth  of  His  love  upon  another  Divine  Person  who  is  infinitely 
worthy  of  receiving  it.  *  *  *  Hard  though  it  may  be  to 
understand  the  Church  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  it  is  much 
harder  to  conceive  how  God  could  be  eternally  love,  if  He  were 
a  solitary  unit." 

The  Spirit  can  and  will  in  answer  to  prayer  help  us 
to  apprehend  the  glorious  heavenly  reality,  and  in 
the  "Veni  Creator"  we  do  pray: 

"Teach  us  to  know  the  Father,  Son, 
And  thee,  of  both,  to  be  but  One." 

It  is  not  the  heart  only,  but  the  intellect  also  that  He 
quickens,  when  the  heavenly  Dove  comes  to  Christians 
"with  all  His  quickening  powers." 

No  season  of  the  Christian  Year  brings  home  to  us 
as  does  this  one  the  truth  that  "the  Catholic  Religion  is 
a  reasonable  religion."  It  is  true  that  the  natural 
(psychical)  "man  receiveth  not  the  things  of  God,"  but 
in  Christ  we  are  something  higher  and  better  than 
natural,  even  spiritual.  "The  Spirit  searcheth  the  deep 
things  of  God,"  that  He  may  tell  the  glorious  secrets 
to  us.  There  is  no  department  of  human  knowledge 
so  uplifting  and  no  exercise  of  man's  god-like  reason  so 
strengthening  to  him,  as  are  those  of  which  we  speak. 


124         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

Whether  we  think  of  the  eternal  divine  "purpose" 
to  found  a  new  universal  family  among  the  nations, — 
which  is  also  called  a  mystery, — or  again  the  wonderful 
secret  of  our  resurrection,  after  the  manner  of  our 
Lord's  resurrection,  "Behold  I  show  you  a  mystery; 
we  shall  not  all  sleep,  but  we  shall  all  be  changed"; 
or  that  of  the  Church's  union  with  her  Lord,  to  be  com- 
pared with  the  sacred  union  of  man  and  wife;  "This 
mystery  is  great;  but  I  speak  of  Christ  and  the 
Church;"  it  is  always  the  same.  The  Spirit  is,  or 
one  day  will  be,  the  efficient  cause  of  the  marvels 
themselves,  and  the  Spirit  it  is  who  lets  us  into  the 
truths  which  mean  so  much  to  us,  and  which  angels 
desire  to  look  into  (1st  Pet.  1  :  12).  God  Himself 
will  have  His  "manifold  wisdom  made  known  through 
the  Church"  to  those  "principalities  and  powers  in  the 
heavenly  places"  (Eph.  3  :  10),  nor  would  He  leave 
us  out,  who  are  the  Church. 

As  no  man  can  say  out  of  his  heart  that  Jesus  is  the 
Lord  but  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  so  none  can  without  the 
same  inward  help  confess  the  truth  of  Atonement,  by 
which  nevertheless  the  Bible  is  pervaded  from  Genesis 
to  Revelation.  The  Jewish  Festivals  owned  it,  incor- 
porated with  the  harvest-home  thought,  "God  is  our 
Life."  The  first  half  of  the  Christian  Year  embodies 
it.  The  Incarnation  was,  at  once  and  in  itself,  a 
reconciliation.  Christ's  perfect  filial  life,  His  holy 
childhood  and  youth,  with  which,  already,  the  Father 
in  heaven  was  "well-pleased,"  was  an  At-one-ment 
between  God  and  Mankind.  The  Lord's  victories 
great  and  small  obtained  over  His  and  our  Tempter, 
were  in  so  far  a  closing  of  the  gap  sin  had  made,  justi- 
fying our  humanity.  And  the  greatest  victory, — that 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT  SHOWN       125 

of  the  Passion  and  the  willing  Death, — which  every 
Eucharist  now  thankfully  celebrates,  closed  the  gap 
entirely,  and  forever  restored  our  fellowship  with  the 
Father. 

And  yet  the  Spirit  alone  makes  this  real,  to  the 
Church  as  a  Body  representing  mankind,  and  to  the 
individual  soul.  It  is  a  revelation  of  the  Spirit  to  me, 
that  7  am  justified,  received  and  through  eternity 
united  to  God  hi  this  mighty  Act  of  vicarious  self- 
giving  on  the  part  of  the  Son  of  God  made  man. 
Theories  of  the  Atonement  are  good,  in  so  far  as  they 
are  true  theories,  that  do  not  infringe  upon  the  truth  of 
God's  Fatherhood  and  Christ's  and  my  sonship,  but 
none  of  these  can  make  the  reconciliation  real  to  me, 
and  help  me  to  appropriate  it — like  the  rude  Maori 
chief,  who,  seeing  a  crucifix  by  the  roadside,  cried, 
"Come  down,  Christ,  that  is  my  place," — without  the 
Spirit.  No  man  or  woman  can  rightly  say,  "my  Lent 
was  a  good  one, — I  had  a  good  Easter,"  but  by  the 
Pentecostal  Spirit. 

Connected  with  this,  however,  is  the  other  fact  of 
sin.  Over  and  over  again  the  Prayer  Book  tells  us, 
that  "if  we  say  that  we  have  no  sin  the  truth  is  not 
in  us,"  speaks  in  the  Communion  Office  of  our  Lord's 
perfect  self -oblation  as  "made  for  the  sins  of  the  whole 
world."  But  it  is  easier  to  listen  to  the  words  than  to 
acknowledge  the  truth  of  them  for  ourselves,  saying 
from  the  heart,  "we  acknowledge  and  bewail  certain 
manifold  sins  which  we  from  time  to  time  have  griev- 
ously committed."  If  any  one,  even  a  near  and  dear 
friend,  calls  our  attention  to  such  offenses,  it  may 
break  the  friendship  forever.  Four  centuries  before 
Christ  a  little  man,  with  an  interesting  though  almost 


126         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

ugly  face,  and  a  powerful  mind,  went  about  the  streets 
of  Athens,  saying  to  its  citizens,  "Know  thyself;  live 
an  honest  and  pure  life."  He  lived  justly  himself; 
but  they  condemned  him  to  die.  Our  Lord  reproved 
Bin,  and  though  men  heard  Him  gladly,  and  He  was 
without  sin,  He  was  crucified. 

Now  it  would  appear  that  He  must  have  been 
rejected,  and  at  last  crucified,  in  great  part,  because  the 
Spirit  was,  as  He  said,  "not  yet  given."  Behold  the 
change,  when  in  about  two  months  the  Spirit  had  been 
given  in  power.  The  very  men  who  have  put  Him  to 
death,  or  looked  on  approvingly,  pricked  in  the  heart 
are  crying  "Whatishall  we  do?"  They  act  on  St. 
Peter's  word,  "Repent  and  be  baptized  every  one  of  you 
in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  unto  the  remission  of  your 
sins."  Now  to  any  man  reading  this  record,  and 
reflecting  on  his  own,  at  least  possible,  connection  with 
this  matter,  considering  who  Jesus  Christ  was,  three 
points  will  stand  out  clearly.  He  will  see  first,  that 
to  have  a  share  in  the  remission  of  sins  he  must  per- 
form a  certain  outward  act  easy  enough  to  be  per- 
formed; secondly,  he  must  repent  of  all  sins  of  which 
his  conscience  accuses  him;  and  thirdly, — which  is  of 
prime  importance, — it  must  be  the  Pentecostal  Spirit 
who  can  enable  Him  to  repent.  The  Holy  Ghost  must, 
can,  and  in  answer  to  prayer  will,  quicken  his  conscience, 
doing  for  him  what  Socrates  could  not  do  for  the  people 
of  Athens,  and  what  even  the  Lord  Jesus  might  not 
do  for  the  people  of  Jerusalem  without  the  Spirit. 

Just  this  the  Lord  promised  that  the  Spirit  would 
do:  "He  shall  convince  the  world  of  sin,  of  righteous- 
ness and  of  judgment."  That  is,  He  would  assist 
every  man  who  should  invoke  the  Spirit  upon  his 


THE  SPIRIT  CONVICTS  OF  SIN  127 

conscience,  to  see  and  in  some  degree  feel  and  acknowl- 
edge, that  the  "sorrow  which"  was  "done  unto" 
Christ,  the  pangs  and  afflictions,  and  the  awful  desola- 
tion, which  forced  from  His  sacred  lips  the  cry,  "My 
God,  my  God,  why  hast  thou  forsaken  me?"  were 
sufferings  endured  on  account  of  our  race;  and  therefore 
have  a  moral  value  for  him. 

The  fact  is, — and  one  needs  to  think  of  it  often  in 
Lent,  or  Advent,  or  whenever  one  would  practice 
self-examination, — there  is  no  such  thing,  there  is  no 
self-knowledge  possible,  "but  by  the  Holy  Ghost." 
We  all  have  to  go  to^  God  to  get  examined;  say, 
"Examine  me,  0  Lord,  and  prove  me:  try  out  my 
reins  and  my  heart";  open  sins  and  secret  ones,  sins 
of  thought,  word  and  deed,  sins  of  omission  and  com- 
mission; and  He  answers  the  petition  through  that 
Third  Person,  whose  Epiphany  is  commemorated 
throughout  the  entire  second  moiety  of  the  year.  To 
speak  in  frank  confidence,  bringing  in  the  priestly  and 
pastoral  ego,  were  I  to  begin  again  to  teach  and  preach 
of  "sin,  and  of  righteousness,  and  of  judgment,"  I 
would  strive  to  do  it  more  than  ever  before  in  the 
power  of  the  Spirit.  In  this  and  in  all  the  sacred 
seasons  I  would  at  times  ask  my  hearers  to  lift  up 
their  hearts  and  listen  in  the  Spirit,  because  no  man 
can  say  in  his  heart  that  Jesus  is  a  Redeemer  from  the 
guilt  of  sin,  and  that  he  in  particular  needs  and  wants 
this  redemption,  but  by  the  gracious  Spirit's  assistance. 

In  the  "intermediate  state,"  regarding  which  the 
Scriptures  have  not  told  us  much,  and  yet  have  said 
enough  to  lead  a  Christian  to  look  forward  and  count 
upon  it  not  a  little  for  himself  and  others, — in  which 
we  shall  be  led  by  Christ's  Spirit  in  paths  of  truth,  which 


128         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

are  only  vistas  now, — the  wisest  and  purest  of  believers 
will  be  purged  of  many  faults  and  enlightened  as  to 
many  misconceptions.  He  will  have  much  to  show 
them  of  two  at  present  half -told  secrets;  "the  mystery 
of  iniquity,"  allowed  here  of  God  to  "work"  more  or 
less  in  all  hearts,  and  the  other  mystery  of  atoning  and 
purifying  Love  revealed  in  the  Son  of  Man.  Only 
when,  in  the  Spirit,  we  shall  have  mastered  and  taken 
home  to  our  inmost  consciousness  these  spiritual  facts, 
our  personal  need  and  God's  most  costly  remedy,  shall 
we  be  able  to  behold  our  Lord  face  to  face,  and  to  "read 
our  title  clear";  in  other  words,  see  our  "names 
written"  large  "in  the  book  of  life  of  the  Lamb  slain 
from  the  foundation  of  the  world."  (Rev.  13  :  8.) 

If  the  truth  of  the  Trinity  be  made  a  subject  for  treat- 
ment in  the  Trinity  Period,  in  the  simple  and  real  way 
in  which  it  certainly  can  be,  and  in  which  the  Bishop 
of  London  has  treated  it  most  helpfully,  there  should  be 
a  great  deal  to  say  concerning  the  love  of  the  Spirit, 
especially  as  a  love  not  to  be  grieved  or  quenched.  The 
reason  why  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost  was  spoken  of 
by  Christ  as  a  sin  not  to  be  forgiven  calls  for  and 
admits  of  statement.  There  is  a  peculiar  nearness  of 
the  Spirit  to  our  race,  to  which  St.  Basil  referred. 

The  "signs "of  the  Spirit  convey  distinct  and  very  dif- 
ferent lessons,  both  to  the  Church  and  individuals,  and 
some  of  them,  like  Fire,  Water,  the  Earthquake,  invite 
treatment  in  sermons  the  more  urgently,  because  they 
cannot  with  ease  be  represented  suitably  in  Christian 
art. 

The  Family  has  a  large  place  in  that  Epistle  which 
occupies  perhaps  a  more  important  position  in  the 
Prayer  Book,  particularly  in  this  Season,  than  does  any 


AUTHORITY  AND  OBEDIENCE  ETERNAL        129 

other  Epistle ;  namely,  the  Ephesians.  In  the  Christian- 
ized family  we  possess,  in  my  opinion,  the  truest,  highest, 
and  most  suggestive  figure  of  the  eternal  Triune  Life 
on  high.  Marriage  is  not  a  mystery.  It  was  the  sacred 
union  of  Christ  and  the  Church  which  the  Apostle 
called  a  mystery,  while  comparing  it  with  marriage. 
But  the  triune  life  in  the  home  is,  and  would  seem 
originally  intended  to  be,  a  type  of  the  Triune  Life 
in  heaven;  most  remarkably  as  respects  those  principles 
of  Authority,  Subordination,  and  Obedience,  together 
with  Equality,  Respect,  and  Love,  which  produce 
harmony  in  heaven  and  earth  alike.  It  has  been  a 
wonder  to  me  to  find  so  little  made  of  this  truth.  Canon 
Mason  said,  "The  only  approach  we  can  make  to  a 
right  understanding  of  what  is  revealed  of  the  unity  of 
the  blessed  Three  lies  in  the  doctrine  of  the  subordina- 
tion of  the  Son  and  Spirit  to  the  Father."  Now  parallel 
with  this,  surely,  is  the  fact  that  the  only  approach  to 
actual  peace  and  true  progress,  in  the  life  of  humanity, 
lies  in  the  realization  of  this  same  principle  first  in  the 
home,  and  then  in  the  state,  and  in  every  sphere  of 
human  life.  This  is  one  of  the  pressing  truths  for 
our  day  and  generation. 

Is  there  any  time  when  in  our  present  circumstances 
it  is  not  hi  order, — will  it  not  be  especially  in  order 
hi  the  long  Whitsuntide? — to  preach  and  teach  of 
the  Spirit  as  the  fount  of  Unity  in  heaven  and  there- 
fore on  earth?  Called  "Osculum  Patris  et  Filii" 
He  is  the  bond  of  unity  between  the  Father  and  the 
Son,  and  His  essential  function  is  that  of  uniting. 
In  our  present  unhappily  divided  condition  as  Chris- 
tians, the  surest  road  out  of  our  difficulties  will  be 
through  a  clearer  recognition  of  the  Spirit's  relation 


130         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

to  Christian  life  and  conduct.  We  must  believe  that 
we  should  not  long  differ  if  we  betook  ourselves  more 
to  Him  in  earnest  petitions  for  a  right  judgment, 
and  for  a  right  temper  and  feeling  in  this  whole  matter 
(vide  G.  F.  Holden,  The  Holy  Ghost  the  Comforter, 
pages  4,  12,  13). 

The  Communion  of  Saints  in  this  life, — in  the  Church 
Militant, — is  a  theme  for  this  period.  Who  but  the 
Spirit  of  Unity  and  Love  shall  impart  to  us  "the  love 
which"  we  ought  to  "have  to  all  the  saints"  here, 
and  so  make  us  "meet  to  be  partakers  of  the  inheri- 
tance of  the  saints  in  light"  hereafter?  It  is  to  be 
observed  that  alike  in  Romans  and  Ephesians,  read 
nine  times  in  all  in  the  Communion  services  of  this 
Season,  the  virtues  inculcated  are  such  as  tend  to 
heal  prejudice,  create  sympathy  and  every  way  foster 
the  Church's  corporate  life.  And  these  two  Epistles 
are  in  their  doctrinal  portions  almost  entirely  devoted 
to  this  aspect  of  the  Christ-life  in  us.  Many  books 
have  been  written  within  a  few  years  upon  the  Holy 
Ghost,  but  attention  has  been  confined  in  them  mostly 
to  the  individual  life  of  Christians  in  Him.  There 
is  a  call  for  a  wider  outlook,  and  the  Scriptures  read 
in  the  Trinity  Season  greatly  favor  this  broader  vision. 
They  should  inspire  Prayer  Book  worshippers  to 
think,  to  study,  to  labor,  and  to  pray  with  one  heart 
for  the  prosperity  of  God's  holy  Apostolic  Church, 
to  ask  for  a  ready  will  to  obey  His  word,  and  a  hearty 
desire  to  make  His  way  known  upon  earth,  His  saving 
health  among  all  nations,  and, — in  order  the  better 
to  promote  these  glorious  ends, — to  work  and  pray 
for  unity  and  co-operation  among  Christians  every- 
where. 


SPIRIT  TRUTH  IN  PAULINE  LETTERS         131 

Now  the  quickening  thought,  yes,  the  motive  and 
the  motive-power,  for  this  corporate  spirit  and  prayer 
and  effort  are  to  be  found  in  the  personality  and 
energy  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  which  as  we  have  seen  are 
either  in  the  foreground  or  the  background  of  all  this 
Season's  services. 

I  would  not  be  understood  to  favor  constantly 
repeated  references  to  the  blessed  Spirit,  such  as  the 
purposes  of  this  volume  have  seemed  to  require.  These 
would  tend  to  weary  one's  hearers,  if  not  to  offend 
them.  We  may  in  this  matter,  as  in  many  another, 
"take  a  leaf"  so  to  say  "out  of  St.  Paul's  book." 
For  a  while  the  Spirit  is  not  named  by  him.  It  is 
only  by  study  and  comparison  of  passages  that  we 
learn  that  he  is  thinking  of  Him,  as  his  readers  are 
supposed  to  be  doing  in  the  Pentecostal  age.  And 
then  how  he  takes  us  by  surprise  by  naming  the 
Spirit  again  and  again!  It  is  like  the  strokes  of  a 
hammer  driving  in  the  nail  fastened  by  this  "master  of 
assemblies;"  or,  better,  the  strokes  of  the  clapper 
of  a  sweet-toned  bell.  So  he  sends  home  the  truth 
of  the  mighty  Spirit's  presence  and  indwelling  life. 

While  writing  this  book  I  have  looked  into  sermons 
of  distinguished  preachers,  in  our  time  and  before  it, 
to  see  whether  many  or  any  of  them  have  imitated 
the  great  Apostle  to  the  Western  world  in  this  respect. 
I  have  found  no  instances  of  it.  It  seems  to  me  that 
it  were  good  to  imitate  him.  For  example  in  the 
Epistle  taken  from  Galatians  (Fourteenth  Sunday 
after  Trinity)  the  Spirit  is  named  five  times  in  quick 
succession;  and  in  the  eighth  chapter  of  Romans  He  is 
named  nineteen  times  in  thirty-nine  verses.  So  doing 
we  should  soon  bring  back  to  the  minds  of  our  people 


132         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

the  neglected  if  not  forgotten  truth  of  the  Lord,  the 
Spirit. 

The  process  would  be  hastened  by  singing  the 
beautiful  Whitsuntide  Hymns  oftener  than  we  have 
done  during  this  Season,  and  at  other  times.  These 
hymns  are  prayers,  to  the  Spirit  and  for  Him.  The 
"normal"  method  of  prayer  is  to  the  Father,  through 
the  Son,  for  the  gift  of  the  Spirit.  Yet  in  the  Litany 
we  directly  address  Him.  We  do  it  in  the  "Veni 
Creator,"  and  in  the  Hymns.  Why  should  we  not  do 
it,  if  He  is  what  Christ  promised  that  He  would  be  to 
us,  if  He  loves  us  with  a  love  of  His  own,  and  if  He 
is  a  Spirit  whom  we  can  grieve? 

"Years  ago,"  wrote  Holden  (page  13),  "I  remember  Dr. 
Liddon  saying  at  Oxford,  that  if  any  one  would  but  try  the 
experiment  of  saying  the  'Veni  Creator'  once  every  day  for 
a  year,  he  would  be  astonished  at  the  end  of  that  time  to  find 
how  much  spiritual  insight  had  been  granted.  To  those  who 
are  called  to  advise  others  there  is  no  condition  so  certain  to 
secure  counsel  and  guidance,  as  that  of  abiding  union  with  the 
same  Blessed  Spirit." 

The  remainder  of  this  work  will  consist  of  sections 
in  which  themes  are  treated,  now  at  some  length,  and 
again  briefly, — always  imperfectly, — which  appear  to 
me  worthy  of  consideration  in  this  Season.  It  has 
seemed  to  me  that  the  thought  of  Missions  should 
have  the  same  first  place  in  this  book  which  it  will 
have  in  every  soul  of  which  the  Holy  Ghost  has  taken 
complete  possession.  Dr.  Downer  has  said, 

"Acts  1  :  8  shows  the  Holy  Ghost  to  have  been  given  for  the 
missionary  purpose,  and  for  other  objects  only  as  they  subserved 
that  purpose.  Had  the  Apostles  refused,  or  neglected,  to 
undertake  the  duty,  can  we  doubt  that  the  gift  of  the  Spirit  would 


THE  SPIRIT  AND  MISSIONS  133 

have  been  withdrawn  from  them?  And  does  it  not  follow  that 
failure  to  discharge  the  missionary  obligation  has  been  the  direct 
cause  of  the  dry,  arid,  unspiritual  condition  into  which  the  Church 
has  fallen  at  such  times,  owing  to  the  retirement  of  the  Blessed 
Spirit  from  His  active  and  vitalizing  operation  within  her, 
grieved  at  her  disobedience  to  the  standing  orders  of  her  Lord, 
or  at  least  by  her  forge tfulness  of  them?  *  *  *  There  are 
many  treatises  setting  forth  the  nature  of  the  Divine  Spirit, 
His  administration  in  the  Body  of  Christ,  His  work  in  the  indi- 
vidual soul;  but  few  dwelling  upon  this,  assuredly  one  of  the 
foremost  of  His  functions." 

"O  Holy  Spirit,  who  proceedest  from  the  Father 
and  the  Son,  teach  us  to  do  the  truth,  that  Thou 
mayest  unite  us  in  a  mysterious  bond  of  love  to  the 
Father  and  the  Son,  from  Whom  Thou  proceedest 
so  ineffably."  (Mozarabic  Liturgy.) 

"Heavenly  King,  Paraclete,  Spirit  of  Truth,  who 
art  everywhere  present  and  fillest  all  things,  the 
Treasury  of  good  things  and  the  Bestower  of  life, 
come  and  dwell  in  us,  and  purify  us  from  every  stain, 
and  save  our  souls  in  Thy  goodness."  (Midnight 
Office  of  Eastern  Church.) 


MISSIONS 

I  will  make  you  fishers  of  men. — Matt.  4  :  19. 

Go  ye  therefore  and  teach  all  nations. — Matt.  28  :  19. 

The  Holy  Ghost  said,  Separate  me  Barnabas  and  Saul  for 
the  work  whereunto  I  have  called  them. — Acts.  13 : 2. 

To  me,  who  am  less  than  the  least  of  all  saints,  is  this  grace 
given,  that  I  should  preach  among  the  Gentiles  the  unsearchable 
riches  of  Christ. — Eph.  3  : 8. 


134         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

The  Book  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  does  not  in  any  complete 
sense  justify  its  title.  What  it  does  give  is  the  great  leading 
Acts  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  not  in  every  place,  or  through  all  the 
chosen  servants  of  the  Ascended  Lord,  but  on  various  critical 
and  exemplary  occasions,  sufficient  to  show  to  all  succeeding 
generations  the  principles  and  methods  of  the  Divine  Spirit  as 
He  dwells  in  and  energizes  the  Body  of  Christ.  It  is  this  that 
renders  the  book  of  such  transcendant  importance  as  the  hand- 
book of  the  Church  in  all  ages. — Downer. 

Missionaries,  native  Christian  workers,  and  leaders  of  the 
missionary  activities  on  the  home  field,  while  they  differ  on 
nearly  all  questions  pertaining  to  plans,  means,  and  methods,  are 
absolutely  united  in  the  conviction  that  the  world's  evangeliza- 
tion is  a  divine  enterprise,  that  the  Spirit  of  God  is  the  great 
Missioner,  and  that  only  as  He  dominates  the  work  and  workers 
can  we  hope  for  success  in  the  undertaking  to  carry  the  knowl- 
edge of  Christ  to  all  people. — Mott. 

Each  new  race  which  is  introduced  into  the  Church  not  only 
itself  receives  the  blessings  of  our  religion,  but  reacts  upon  it  to 
bring  out  new  and  unsuspected  aspects  and  beauties  of  its  truth 
and  influence.  *  *  *  How  much  of  the  treasures  of  wisdom 
and  power  which  lie  hid  in  Christ  awaited  the  Greek  intellect, 
and  the  Roman  spirit  of  government,  and  the  Teutonic  individu- 
ality, and  the  temper  and  character  of  the  Kelt  and  Slav,  before 
they  could  leap  into  light!  And  can  we  doubt  that  now  again 
not  only  would  Indians,  and  Japanese,  and  Africans,  and  China- 
men be  the  better  for  Christianity,  but  that  Christianity  would 
be  unspeakably  also  the  richer  for  their  adhesion, — for  the  gifts 
which  the  subtlety  of  India,  and  the  grace  of  Japan,  and  the 
silent  patience  of  China  are  capable  of  bringing  into  the  city  of 
God. — Bishop  Gore,  on  Ephesians. 

The  few  commands  Christ  gave  to  His  followers  while 
in  the  flesh  became  after  the  descent  of  His  Spirit  upon 
them  rather  inward  motives  than  commands.  So  it 
was  in  regard  to  the  Eucharist  as  a  grateful  memorial 
of  Him,  and  so  it  was  as  to  the  commands,  Let  your 
light  shine,  and,  Preach  my  Gospel  to  all  the  world. 


MISSIONS  135 

The  light  shines  because  it  is  light.  As  soon  as  the 
promised  Spirit  dwelt  in  Christians,  and  the  Love  and 
the  Light  were  in  their  hearts,  the  great  work  of  mis- 
sions was  inaugurated.  As  Bishop  Brent  has  said, 
"The  Christian  tree  does  not  grow  because  it  is  bidden, 
but  because  it  is  a  tree  *  *  *  unexpansive  religion 
is  dying  religion."  Is  it  too  much  to  say  that  the 
Churchman  cannot  sing  or  say  from  the  heart,  "The 
Holy  Church  throughout  all  the  world  doth  acknowl- 
edge Thee"  without  desiring  to  do  his  part  toward 
making  the  words  entirely  true  in  fact? 

The  Psalmist  wrote,  "Make  me  a  clean  heart,  O 
God,  establish  me  with  thy  free  Spirit;  then  shall  I 
teach  thy  ways  unto  the  wicked,  and  shiners  shall  be 
converted  unto  thee,"  and  the  Spirit  it  is  who  now  on 
a  broader  scale  communicates  missionary  love  and 
energy  to  the  Church.  Dr.  Downer  remarks  on  the 
verse,  "Ye  shall  receive  power  when  the  Holy  Ghost 
is  come  upon  you;  and  ye  shall  be  my  witnesses  *  *  * 
unto  the  uttermost  part  of  the  earth,"  that  a  more 
important  verse  it  is  impossible  to  find.  It  is  the  key, 
not  only  to  the  whole  of  the  book  in  which  it  occurs 
(The  Acts),  but  to  the  entire  record  of  Church  history." 

The  "nations"  are  in  their  turn  to  become  witnesses 
for  Christ;  "not  the  cultured  Greeks  alone,  nor  the 
military  and  conquering  Latin  race,  but  the  barbarous 
people  of  Gaul  and  Germany,  the  mixed  races  of  Asia 
Minor,  the  dark-skinned  tribes  of  Africa,  the  Goths 
and  Vandals,  the  Keltic  Britons  and  the  fair-haired 
Saxons."  The  rivers  of  living  water  which  are  to 
flow  out  of  Christians  as  individual  believers  and  as 
Christ 's  Body  are  rivers  of  missionary  influence.  They 
are  "bright  as  crystal,"  they  are  life-giving  and  refresh- 


136         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

ing  to  all  around,  because  they  have  their  source  in 
the  Spirit  who  dwells  in  them. 

It  may  be  an  overstatement  in  Dr.  Trumbull's  work, 
"Our  Misunderstood  Bible,"  that  we  make  a  mistake 
to  think  of  the  Holy  Spirit  as  given  to  us  for  any  other 
purpose  than  to  make  us  faithful  and  valiant  witnesses 
to  Christ  in  this  world;  yet  it  is  noticeable  that  in  the 
Proper  Preface  for  Whitsunday  this  is  the  dominant 
purpose.  It  represents  the  Holy  Ghost  as  "lighting 
upon  the  Apostles  to  teach  them  and  lead  them  to  all 
truth;  giving  them  the  gift  of  divers  languages  and 
also  boldness  with  fervent  zeal  constantly  to  preach 
the  gospel  to  all  nations." 

We  think  of  Advent  and  Epiphany  as  missionary 
seasons,  but  the  above-mentioned  Whitsunday  Preface, 
and  the  fact  before  referred  to,  that  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles — "Acts  of  the  Holy  Spirit" — are  read  on  the 
first  ten  Sundays  after  Trinity,  and  read  on  week-days 
from  June  twenty-third  until  August  fifth,  together 
with  other  features  of  the  Services  yet  to  be  named, 
show  this  second  half  of  the  Christian  Year  to  be  pre- 
eminently the  missionary  season. 

One  lesson  in  this  "first  chapter  in  the  history 
of  Christian  Missions,"  read  on  a  week-day  in  July, 
we  could  wish  were  always  read  on  Sunday,  throwing 
light  as  it  does  on  the  Spirit's  office  as  the  Vice-gerent 
of  Christ,  and  the  supreme  organizer  and  controller 
of  the  missionary  campaign  for  all  time. 

It  is  humiliating  to  think  how  "neglect  of  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Spirit"  generally  has  caused  the  Church 
to  neglect  in  particular  this  event  in  the  career  of  St. 
Paul  as  bearing  on  the  Spirit's  method  in  what  we 
term  foreign  missions.  Eager  to  cover  the  ground 


MISSIONS  137 

near  home,  in  the  limited  region  called  Asia  and  then 
in  Bithynia,  the  Apostle  is  overruled,  one  might  say, 
rushed  along  to  ancient  Troy,  and  then  beckoned  to 
from  across  the  sea  by  the  "man  of  Macedonia." 
The  whole  account  is  a  lesson  to  the  Church  in  every 
age.  To  one  who  knows  anything  of  the  narrow,  wind- 
ing channels  and  dangerous  rocks,  and  the  rarity  of 
winds  favorable  to  "a  straight  course"  to  Samothrace, 
then  to  Neapolis,  and  then  to  Pbilippi,  it  seems  as 
if  the  winds  and  waves  must  have  been  obedient  to 
the  voice  of  Christ  as  they  had  been  once  on  Gen- 
nesaret.  The  breath  of  His  divine  Spirit  seems  to  be 
filling  the  sails. 

Surely  it  was  so.  It  was  the  Mind  of  the  Spirit, 
His  holy  Will,  to  lose  no  time  in  flinging  out  the  banner 
of  the  Cross  in  the  great  cities  of  the  West.  Is  it  not 
His  mind  now?  The  field  is  the  world.  The  Gospel 
seed  is  in  all  ages  to  be  scattered  widely.  We  are  not 
to  favor  the  intensive  at  the  cost  of  the  extensive 
method  of  cultivating  the  field. 

What  Mr.  John  Mott, — whose  name  has  become 
almost  a  household  one  in  the  Church  and  Household 
of  Christ,  through  his  connection  with  the  Edinburgh 
conference, — says  of  the  "unmistakable  signs  of  the 
awakening  of  great  peoples  from  their  long  sleep"  is 
unquestionably  true.  He  declares,  that 

"through  the  whole  of  Asia  a  ferment  is  in  process  which  has 
spread  from  the  intellectual  leaders,  and  is  fast  taking  possession 
of  the  masses.  It  affects  over  three-fourths  of  the  human  race, 
including  peoples  of  high  intelligence  and  ancient  civilization." 

Now  is  not  this  in  great  measure  an  answer  to 
prayer  for  "opened  doors,"  and  have  we  not  been 


138         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

losing  time  through  neglect  of  prayer,  and  slowness 
to  behold  as  in  a  vision  the  man  of  China,  and  the 
man  of  Japan,  and  the  man  of  India,  beckoning  to  us? 

Mr.  Mott's  book  is  called  the  "Decisive  Hour 
of  Christian  Missions."  Doubtless  there  are  these 
decisive  hours  with  God.  It  is  true  that  with  Him 
"a,  thousand  years  are  as  one  day,"  that  we  may  not 
hurry  God,  nor  force  His  hand.  But  is  it  not  also  true 
that  He  waits  for  us,  and  that  we  keep  Him  waiting 
by  our  slowness  of  heart  to  obey  the  motions  of  the 
Spirit  and  discern  the  signs  of  His  presence.  "Our 
wills  are  ours,"  and  for  what?  To  make  them  His. 

The  whole  Pentecostal  era  was  intended  to  be  a 
long,  glorious,  decisive  period  of  missions.  We  have 
but  to  study  the  Acts,  and  mark  the  rapid,  continuous 
march  of  events  and  expansion  of  method  to  see  this. 
It  is  humiliating  to  reflect  how  little  broadly  and  intel- 
ligently Christians  have  interpreted  the  Apostle's 
word,  "Now  is  the  accepted  time;  now  is  the  day  of 
salvation."  A  glance  at  Isaiah  49  proves  that  the 
borrowed  phrase  was  a  prophecy  of  the  conversion  of 
the  nations  to  Christ.  St.  Paul  uses  it  with  the  same 
thought,  and  in  an  age  when  "all  things"  have  "become 
new,"  because  God  is  in  Christ,  "reconciling  the 
world  unto  himself."  Accordingly  "Now"  means  not 
this  or  that  "decisive  hour"  when  "Jesus  Christ  is 
passing  by"  as  in  the  days  of  His  flesh.  He  is  the 
risen,  ascended,  glorified  Christ,  to  whom  all  power 
has  been  given,  and  whose  Spirit  is  always  with  us, 
never  passing  by  in  the  sense  that  He  was  not  here 
and  strong  to  save  yesterday,  or  will  not  be  to- 
morrow. All  that  is  needed  is  that  we  receive  not 
this  grace  in  vain,  but  give  up  ourselves  to  walk,  to  live, 


MISSIONS  139 

to  preach,    to  teach,    work    and  give   in  the  Spirit 
unceasingly. 

The  Augustinian,  and  Calvinistic,  but  non-Pauline, 
doctrine  of  election, — together  with  words  like  those 
in  the  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith,  that  as  "God 
hath  appointed  the  elect  unto  glory,"  *  *  *  so 
"the  rest  of  mankind  was  He  pleased  according  to  the 
unsearchable  counsel  of  His  own  will  *  *  *  to 
pass  by,  and  to  ordain  them  to  dishonor  and  wrath  for 
their  sin,  to  the  praise  of  His  glorious  justice," — will 
surely  have  had  some  effect  to  deaden  feelings  of 
concern  and  responsibility,  in  many  Christians,  for 
individuals  and  nations  upon  whom  no  light  had 
apparently  shined.  It  was  largely  the  fault  of  Chris- 
tians, if  it  had  not  shined.  According  to  St.  Paul 
(1st  Tim.  2:3),  it  is  the  will  of  God  "that  all  men 
should  be  saved  and  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the 
truth."  His  Son  is  a  universal  Saviour. 

It  was  a  pity  and  a  shame  that  the  Reformation, 
operating  within  the  Church  and  diffusing  spiritual 
light  and  holiness  among  her  members,  resulted  in 
small  gains  for  missions,  owing  to  unhappy  difficulties 
and  divisions  which  occupied  the  attention  of  the 
reformed  communions. 

*     *     *     "The  scambling  and  unquiet  time 
Did  push  it  out  of  further  question." 

It  can  be  said  for  the  Church  of  the  Prayer  Book 
that  the  Whitsunday  Preface  already  twice  referred 
to  dates  from  the  Reformation  period.  But  outside 
of  the  petition,  "That  thou  wouldest  be  pleased  to 
make  known  thy  saving  health  to  all  nations"  and  the 


140         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

comparatively  new  prayer,  beginning,  "0  God,  who 
hast  made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  men,"  the  mis- 
sionary thought  finds  meagre  expression  in  the  form 
of  distinct  missionary  prayers. 

So  far  as  the  choice  of  Scripture  passages  is  concerned, 
the  Prayer  Book  is  true  to  the  Spirit's  mind  in  the 
Advent  Season.  "The  things  written  for  our  learning" 
in  the  Psalms  and  Prophets,  and  quoted  by  St.  Paul 
in  Romans, — words  compared  by  Godet  to  a  duet  in 
which  the  nations,  gathered  together  into  one  body 
in  the  most  cosmopolitan  of  all  the  Churches,  sing 
Glory  to  the  Father  and  to  the  Son, — bear  distinctly 
upon  missions.  In  the  Collect,  however,  "Blessed 
Lord,  who  hast  caused  all  holy  Scriptures  to  be  written 
for  our  learning,"  one  discovers  no  trace  of  the  mission- 
ary thought. 

No  race  in  the  world  owes  more  to  missionary  love 
and  sympathy  manifested  in  the  early  Christian  Church 
than  does  the  race  to  which  we  belong.  Shall  we  for- 
get? Shall  we  fail  to  recall  the  conversion  of  ancient 
Britain,  probably  due  in  part  to  Christian  soldiers  of  the 
Roman  cohorts  in  their  encampments  of  the  far  North- 
West?  Shall  we  forget  our  debt  to  Gregory  and  Augus- 
tine of  Canterbury?  With  entire  justice  has  Dean 
Church,  in  one  of  his  Village  Sermons,  made  appli- 
cation to  the  English  conscience  of  what  Gregory 
under  the  Holy  Spirit's  guidance  did  for  England, 
and,  we  must  add,  for  us. 

"The  Christians  of  those  days,  who  lived  as  we  live  in  more 
settled  countries,  who  could  have  their  share  of  ease  and  quiet 
without  troubling  themselves  about  distant  barbarians,  felt  that 
the  Gospel  was  not  to  stop  at  themselves,  felt  themselves  debtors 
even  to  those  unknown  barbarians,  to  try  and  bring  them  within 


MISSIONS  141 

their  Master's  fold, — trusted  that  God  would  do  what  seemed 
impossible  to  man. 

"Here  is  in  a  word  the  human  cause  of  the  conversion  of  Eng- 
land. A  minister  of  God,  living  far  away  from  this  island,  was 
inflamed  with  love  and  pity  for  its  people,  our  then  heathen 
countrymen  and  forefathers.  He  desired  for  them  the  heritage 
of  the  angels  in  heaven.  He  could  not  go  himself,  but  he  got 
others  to  go.  A  few  humble,  helpless  men,  with  the  Cross  of 
Christ  and  the  Book  of  God,  landed  on  our  shores.  There  was 
opposition,  there  was  difficulty;  there  was  labor  that  seemed  in 
vain.  Over  and  over  again  all  seemed  lost;  over  and  over  again 
the  work  had  to  be  begun  anew.  It  was  not  done  in  a  generation 
or  in  a  century.  But  that  good  man  who  longed  for  the  con- 
version of  heathen  England  has  had  his  wish.  He  did  not  see  it. 
He  only  saw  then  what  seemed  its  feeble  and  hopeless  beginnings. 
But  his  work  went  on  and  prospered.  What  could  not  be  done  at 
once  has  been  done  in  time. 

"And  here  is  this  great  realm  and  church  of  England,  not 
the  least  of  the  kingdoms  of  the  world  which  acknowledge  the 
name  of  Christ,  the  mother  of  new  nations,  the  planter  of  new 
churches, — where  through  its  length  and  breadth,  in  cities  and 
cottages,  the  Light  of  the  World  is  shining, — owing  all  its  bless- 
ings, owing  its  knowledge  of  the  Gospel,  owing  all  to  the  warm 
love  and  far-seeing  faith  and  hope,  which  refused  to  be  frightened, 
of  one  old  man  far  away." 

How  has  our  English-speaking  race  developed  in  the 
thirteen  centuries  since  Augustine  landed  in  Kent! 
In  the  five  centuries  since  aged  Gaunt  is  made  to  call 
our  mother  country 

"This  happy  breed  of  men,  this  little  world; 
This  precious  stone  set  in  the  silver  sea, 
Which  serves  it  in  the  office  of  a  wall, 
Or  as  a  moat  defensive  to  a  house, 
Against  the  envy  of  less  happier  lands," 

how  have  her  character  and  her  sphere  of  world-action, 
— not  least,  her  knowledge  and  her  language, — ex- 


142         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

panded  and  ripened!  Her  language,  which  is  ours, 
is  the  most  widely  spoken  language  in  the  world.  As 
the  ruler  and  guardian  of  India  and  Australia  and 
Canada,  she,  together  with  her  daughter  America, 
is  vastly  different  from  the  old-time 

"England,  bound  in  with  the  triumphant  sea." 

Bishop  Montgomery's  analysis  of  the  present  charac- 
ter of  our  type  of  manhood,  our  position  in  respect  to 
the  other  races,  our  opportunity  and  our  fitness  to 
spread  Christ's  kingdom  everywhere, — found  in  the 
Introduction  to  the  valuable  work  entitled  "Mankind 
and  the  Church," — possesses  intense  interest  for  a 
Prayer  Book  Christian.  Still  insular, 

"this  man  has  had  a  wonderful  world-experience  and  training." 
Almost  color-blind  by  nature  to  certain  aspects  of  truth, 
"his  defect  has  compensating  advantages,  inasmuch  as  when,  by 
a  kind  of  divine  surgical  operation,  he  gains  his  spiritual  vision, 
no  man  is  more  fervent  in  his  desire  to  bring  his  conduct  into  close 
line  with  his  beliefs.  *  *  *  Used  to  holding  in  dim  fashion 
that  our  blessed  Lord  must  have  been  born  in  London  for  the 
express  benefit  of  his  own  race  alone,  he  has  become  one  of  the 
greatest  of  missionaries.  The  day  was,  when  he  declared  that  it 
was  almost  ludicrous  to  suppose  you  could  convert  a  Chinese 
or  an  Indian,  and  when  in  consequence,  with  kindly  eyes,  we  had 
to  say  to  him,  '  If  God  Almighty  has  converted  you,  do  you  really 
suppose  there  can  be  real  difficulty  with  any  other  race?'  To-day 
he  is  earnest  in  impressing  upon  all  men  the  Faith  of  the  Gospel." 

The  record  of  the  Church  of  Britain,  before  Augus- 
tine came  to  Canterbury,  and  after  that,  was  a  noble 
one  in  respect  to  missions.  It  is  enough  to  mention 
Columba  and  Aidan  in  the  former  period,  and  Wilfrid 
and  Boniface  in  the  latter.  It  is  plain  in  this  our  own 
day,  that  a  special  calling  wherewith  English-speaking 


MISSIONS  143 

Christians  are  called,  is  to  be  a  missionary  people. 
One  of  Macaulay's  most  brilliant  passages  is  that  in 
which  he  has  described  Rome's  loyalty  to  her  early 
vision,  and  her  purpose,  unabated  to  this  day,  to 
touch  the  uttermost  part  of  the  earth  with  truth  as 
she  understands  it.  But  her  day  is  passing.  No 
longer  can  it  be  said  that  she  is  "full  of  life  and  youth- 
ful vigor,"  that  "the  number  of  her  children  is  greater 
than  in  any  former  age."  Bishop  Montgomery  writes: 
"It  is  not  for  me  to  prophesy  about  the  future  of  that 
marvellous  engine  of  spiritual  power,  but  I  may  sug- 
gest what,  again,  experience  of  many  lands  has  taught 
me.  The  time-spirit  is  against  the  Latin  Church 
among  every  race  except  the  Latin." 

It  would  appear  according  to  this  writer  that  the  bells 
in  many  a  tower  are  chiming  in  the  era  of  the  English- 
speaking  Catholic  Church.  It  is  the  call  of  the  Spirit. 
Four  things  are  necessary  to  the  people  and  the  com- 
munion who  shall  respond  to  and  fulfil  this  high  calling, 
and  with  these  the  Spirit  has  been  fitting  us  by  natural 
endowment  and  a  long  education  and  discipline. 

We  may  name  first  a  racial  genius  and  bent  which 
many  strains  and  many  strands  have  contributed  to 
make  what  they  are,  and  a  wonderful  history  has  devel- 
oped and  improved.  English  or  Americans,  John 
Bullish  as  we  are  by  our  reserve,  independence,  and 
force  of  will,  a  "little  world"  still,  or  a  large  one,  in 
ourselves,  we  were  fitted  to  learn,  and  have  learned, 
intellectually  and  every  way, — after  the  manner  of  the 
great  Shakspeare  himself, — to  sympathize  with  the 
greater  world  of  mankind.  German  thought  and 
knowledge,  or  French  or  Oriental,  we  can  appreciate 
and  assimilate  them  all.  Nothing  that  is  human  is 


144         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

quite  foreign  to  us.  In  all  this  training  and  equip- 
ment of  universality  the  Spirit  of  the  divine-human 
Lord  has  had  His  part.  To  Him,  not  to  us,  it  chiefly 
belongs.  This,  like  our  language,  prepares  us  to  be 
the  greatest  of  all  missionary  races. 

English  and  American  experience  with  independency 
has  been  of  inestimable  value.  Finding  out  its  weak- 
ness and  instability,  its  sad  failure  to  command  the 
respect  of  the  people  as  a  whole,  and  keep  them  loyal 
to  the  fundamental  truths  of  Christ,  we  have  also  been 
learning  the  patience  and  forbearance  of  God,  and 
His  wisdom  and  power  to  overrule  sectarian  division 
and  rivalry  for  good.  The  lesson  our  blessed  Lord 
taught  at  the  very  beginning  in  the  correcting  word, 
"Forbid  him  [or  it]  not;  for  he  that  is  not  against  us 
is  for  us,"  so  often  forgotten,  we  have  been  learning 
over  again,  by  our  personal  observation  of  His  Spirit 
blessing  the  work  of  many  at  home  and  abroad,  and 
sometimes  in  a  wonderfully  abundant  way,  who  are 
casting  out  the  evil  spirits  in  Christ's  name  while 
following  not  with  us.  We  have  learned  to  admire 
in  them  a  missionary  zeal  and  devotion  surpassing 
our  own;  seen  that  they  were  in  fact  more  catholic 
than  ourselves,  partly  in  their  strict  obedience  to 
the  Lord's  great  missionary  mandate,  and  partly  in 
their  conscious  and  oft  expressed  dependence  on  the 
Holy  Ghost  as  before  all  else  a  Spirit  of  Missions. 

In  the  third  place,  there  is  the  important  principle 
of  nationality.  Free  and  bold  to  maintain, — from  the 
early  times,  and  even  when  the  Papal  power  was  at  its 
height,  and  asserted  its  false  claim  most  insistently, — 
her  autonomy  as  a  member  of  the  Church  universal, 
the  English  Church  has  recognized  our  right  to  the 


MISSIONS  145 

same  ancient  privilege.  She,  like  the  American 
Church,  is  ready  and  glad  to  cherish  the  desire  for 
autonomy  and  establish  national  Catholic  Churches 
in  every  land.  Almost  as  little  as  what  the  sometime 
Bishop  of  Tasmania  terms  "the  Latin  straight-jacket" 
is  suitable  to  be  fixed  upon  every  race  in  the  world, 
is  an  English  or  American  one,  catholic  or  non-catholic, 
adapted  to  Christians  in  the  Orient  or  Africa.  Chris- 
tianity is  "universal  in  essence  and  purpose."  As 
Bishop  Brent  has  reminded  us,  "Christ  is  the  Orient. 
The  father  of  His  immediate  herald  called  Him  'the 
dayspring  from  on  high.'  In  taking  Him  to  the  East  we 
take  Him  to  His  own."  How  think  then  to  force  His 
religion  upon  the  East  hi  its  Westernized  form  and  habit? 

But  perhaps  more  important  to  be  named  than 
either  of  these  three  features,  is  the  heritage  of  Faith 
and  Worship  and  Order  which  we  have  to  pass  on.  It, 
too,  like  the  Founder  of  our  universal  religion,  was  of 
Eastern  origin,  was  born,  as  Bishop  Brent  says  our 
blessed  Saviour  was,  "in  a  country  that  was  the  border- 
land between  East  and  West."  Accordingly  it,  too, 
was  created  to  live  and  be  a  blessing  to  countless  gener- 
ations East  and  West.  Bishop  Montgomery's  thought 
on  the  Church  as  a  continuing  Church  is  one  to  be 
remembered: 

"There  are  vast  organizations,  denominations,  Churches, 
whatever  may  be  the  name  they  desire  to  be  called  by,  outside 
this  ancient  and  to  us  stable  Church.  Their  devotion  and  work 
has  been  magnificent;  for  all  their  great  achievements  for 
Christ's  kingdom  throughout  the  world  we  love  them;  we  gaze 
upon  them  as  one  would  look  upon  a  splendid  athlete  winning 
race  after  race:  but  the  old  Church  of  this  nation  notes  also, 

10 


146         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

and  with  foreboding,  a  look  of  delicacy  in  the  athlete's  face; 
it  is  often  so  with  athletes,  and  we  ask,  will  he  live  the  ordinary 
span  of  life?  then  we  shake  our  heads.  I  can  only  give  my  con- 
viction, formed  chiefly  in  regions  outside  the  motherland,  that 
the  stability  of  Christianity  depends  upon  the  Catholic  Church 
and  its  order  and  temper.  The  only  anchor  that  can  hold  till 
the  end  in  spite  of  any  storm  from  whatever  direction,  is  the 
Catholic  anchor  with  its  long,  unbroken  chain. 

"If  this  be  so,"  the  Bishop  continues, — and  it  is  a  solemn  word 
for  American  Christians  who  have  their  hands  also  upon  the 
historic  unbroken  chain  and  anchor, — "then,  since  we  are 
responsible  to  the  fullest  extent  of  our  power  for  the  stability  of 
the  Faith  one  thousand  years  hence,  the  order  and  temper  and 
attitude  of  the  Catholic  Church  is  part  of  the  'deposit'  which  is 
too  sacred  to  be  parted  with  for  any  consideration  whatsoever, 
and  becomes  an  essential  part  of  our  contribution  to  the  races 
of  the  earth.  It  is  possible,  fortunately,  to  say  this  with  unfeigned 
respect,  with  genuine  affection,  for  those  who  do  not  agree 
with  us." 

The  lesson  is  doubly  solemn  and  imperative  for 
American  Churchmen,  by  reason  of  the  two-fold  manner 
in  which  our  country  is  now  coming  in  ever  closer  con- 
tact with  the  people  of  other  lands.  They  are  pouring 
in  upon  us  to  become  an  integral  portion  of  our  vast 
commonwealth,  while  we  are  reaching  out  more  and 
more,  to  shape  and  influence  their  development  at 
home.  Alike  here  in  the  field  of  domestic  missions  and 
in  missions  beyond  the  seas,  we  are  bound  to  furnish 
them, — ought  to  love  and  long  to  give  them, — 

"a  Faith  which  will  be  stable  and  living  a  thousand  years  hence; 
all  that  has  been  of  late  summed  up  and  implied  in  the  phrase, 
the  historic  Episcopate;  the  ordinances,  the  definite  attitude,  the 
simple  Apostolic  belief,  the  atmosphere,  the  taste,  the  'sort  of 
perfume  almost,'  which  inhere  in  the  Church  and  Prayer  Book, 
the  Spirit  has  made  ours  that  we  may  give  them  to  others,  and 
that  you  discover  best  when  you  step  outside  its  limits." 


MISSIONS  147 

To  American  Christians  home  missions  are  foreign 
missions.  On  the  other  hand,  to  plant  missions  abroad 
which  shall  result  hi  stable  and  autonomous  Churches 
means  in  the  end  to  confirm  and  enrich  our  religious 
life  here.  Alike  at  home  and  beyond  the  oceans,  far- 
seeing,  broad-minded  Christians  perceive  each  year 
more  clearly  the  necessity  of  establishing  everywhere  a 
united  Christianity.  Not  the  one  Spirit  only  is  to 
be  sought  and  found,  but  the  one  Body.  "Amiable 
but  aimless, "  says  Bishop  Doane,  commenting  on  the 
Epistle  for  the  Seventeenth  Sunday  after  Trinity,  "is 
their  endeavour  who,  seeking  to  keep  the  unity  of  the 
Spirit,  sacrifice  as  of  no  importance  the  unity  of  the 
body.  Keep  oneness  even  at  the  cost  of  peace."  It 
is  a  Scotch  Presbyterian,  Dr.  Milligan,  who  tells  us 
that  the  Church  will  never  enjoy  the  fulfilment  of  our 
Lord's  promise,  "greater  works  than  these  shall  he 
that  believeth  on  me  do,  because  I  go  unto  my  Father," 
unless  believers  are  one  in  Christ  as  He  is  one  with  that 
Father.  Out  of  this  truth  flows  all  that  is  most 
characteristic  of  the  Church. 

"She  must  not  only  be  one,  but  visibly  one,  in  such  a  sense  that 
men  shall  themselves  see  and  acknowledge  that  her  unity  is 
real.  *  *  *  The  world  will  never  be  converted  by  a  disunited 
Church.  Bible  circulation  and  missionary  exertion  upon  the 
largest  scale  will  be  powerless  to  convert  it,  unless  accompanied 
by  the  strength  which  unity  alone  can  give."  ("Resurrection  of 
our  Lord,"  page  201.) 

The  Spirit  of  Unity  is  the  Spirit  who  has  given  us  a 
Book  of  Common  Prayer  which  embodies  so  wonder- 
fully the  Faith  and  the  spiritual  aspirations  of  the 
undivided  Church.  And  the  self-same  Spirit  is  it, 
who  in  marvellous  ways  prepared  the  nations  to 


148         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

receive  a  universal  Saviour.  Long  before  His  Incar- 
nation, Christ,  coming  into  the  world  by  the  Spirit, 
was  lighting  every  man,  and  every  nation.  The  better 
acquaintance  our  missionaries  make  with  the  Eastern 
peoples  and  with  their  religious  and  philosophical  ideas, 
even  the  crude  ideas  and  beliefs  of  the  Negro  race,  and 
the  Papuans,  the  clearer  become  the  evidences  of  the 
Spirit's  witness  in  ancient  times.  They  discover  how 
far  the  foreign  field  is  from  being  a  field  barren  and  poor. 
There  is  immense  encouragement  in  this.  The  vision 
of  St.  Paul  in  Troy  repeats  itself  in  other  fashion  in  our 
day.  It  is  the  vision  of  such  a  new  humanity  in  Christ 
as  Christendom  itself  has  not  dreamed  of.  "As  surely 
as  every  river  in  the  land  ultimately  reaches  the  sea," 
writes  Bishop  Brent,  in  "Adventure  for  God,"  "so 
surely  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  will  receive  into  itself 
those  lesser  faiths  wherein  God  did  not  leave  Himself 
wholly  without  witness.  There  comes  a  tremendous 
enlargement  of  interest  and  a  full  flood  of  hope  with  the 
thought  that  the  first  duty  of  the  missionary  is  to  find 
Christ  rather  than  to  give  Him  among  those  to  whom 
he  is  sent"  (page  89). 

It  will  be  when  all  the  great  races  have  been  gathered 
in,  and  a  world-wide  Christian  Church  and  Civilization 
has  taken  form,  and  begun  in  truth  to  live,  that  the  rich 
meaning  of  the  New  Testament  phrases,  the  "perfect 
man,"  and  "the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fulness 
of  Christ,"  and  "the  breadth  and  length  and  depth 
and  height,"  will  dawn  upon  the  world.  These  expres- 
sions, found  near  together  in  that  great  Epistle  upon  the 
Church,  Ephesians,  come  to  mind  when  one  reads  the 
book  just  quoted  from  so  freely,  "Mankind  and  the 
Church."  It  is  called  an  attempt  to  estimate  the 


MISSIONS  149 

contribution  of  great  races  to  the  fulness  of  the  Church 
of  God,  by  Seven  Bishops.  Rather  expecting  to  be 
styled  "the  Seven  Dreamers,"  they  are  not  ashamed  of, 
— nor  will  their  readers,  especially  preachers  on  Missions 
in  the  Trinity  Season,  fail  to  be  profoundly  interested 
in, — their  visions  of  "the  things  which  Christians  now 
have  a  right  to  believe  shall  be  hereafter,"  through  the 
love  of  Christ  and  the  wisdom  and  power  of  the  Uni- 
versal Spirit  dwelling  in  a  Universal  Church. 

Their  Apostle  asked  for  the  saints  hi  Ephesus  that 
the  spirit  of  wisdom  and  revelation  might  be  given  them 
in  the  knowledge  of  Christ;  and  one  may  perhaps 
presume  to  think  of  the  dreams  of  the  Seven  Bishops 
as  in  the  same  long  line  of  inspired  thought  with  the 
visions  of  St.  Paul  while  a  prisoner  of  Christ  in  Rome; 
of  St.  John  in  Patmos,  "  in  the  Spirit  on  the  Lord's  day"; 
of  St.  Augustine  in  Civitas  Dei;  of  the  author  of 
"Adventure  for  God " ;  of  Bishop  Westcott,  in  " Lessons 
from  Work";  of  Mr.  Mott,  in  the  "Decisive  Hour  of 
Christian  Missions."  Books  like  the  last-named,  and 
sermons  suggested  by  them,  together  with  items  of  news 
almost  daily  coming  in  from  the  missionary  fields,  are 
creating  a  wide-spread  interest  in  Missions  in  the 
Churches,  and  making  truer  the  saying,  that  "the  signs 
of  the  times  are  full  of  hope,  and  missionary  interest 
and  endeavour  a  veritable  power." 

"It  is  unique  and  inspiriting,"  says  Bishop  Brent, 
"that  in  the  heat  of  a  political  campaign  a  President  of 
this  Republic  should  call  men  to  confer  with  him  regard- 
ing a  missionary  opportunity  in  a  non-Christian  land, 
which  it  seemed  to  him  should  be  seized. 
When  the  highest  post  of  honor  in  a  leading  school  for 
girls  is  the  presidency  of  the  missionary  society,  and 


150         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

when  the  head  master  of  a  great  school  for  boys  publicly 
proclaims  that  he  would  rather  see  one  of  his  pupils  a 
foreign  missionary  than  in  the  Presidential  chair,  surely 
the  vision  of  adventure  for  God  is  a  living  force  in  our 
midst!"  ("Adventure  for  God,"  page  30.) 


THE  ANTE-NATAL  LIFE 

The  various  Symbols  of  the  Pentecostal  Spirit's 
presence,  taken  from  the  sphere  of  nature  in  which 
He  has  ever  been  active,  suggest  parallels  too  often 
passed  by  unnoticed.  Our  Lord  could  not  make  use 
of  them  in  His  parables,  before  the  Spirit  was  mani- 
fested; but  to  us  who  live  in  the  era  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  it  ought  to  be  evident  that  in  grace,  as  in  nature, 
without  Him  not  anything  was  made  or  done  that  was 
made  or  done. 

Freer  application  of  this  principle  should  long  ago 
have  been  made  to  the  study  of  human  history,  before 
the  Incarnation  and  since;  but  to  many  it  has  become 
clear  that,  while  sin  was  everywhere,  none  would 
seem  to  have  been  totally  depraved,  and  that  of  this 
God's  loving  mercy  was  the  cause. 

"No  sooner  had  man  sinned,"  wrote  the  first  American 
Bishop,  Seabury,  "than  God  was  in  Christ  reconciling  the  world 
— human  nature — unto  Himself.  'The  seed  of  the  woman,' 
said  God,  'shall  bruise  the  serpent's  head.'  Something  wanted 
to  be  done  within  man — in  the  very  centre  of  his  being — in  order 
to  save  him.  He  had  gotten  a  crooked,  perverse  and  serpentine 
nature,  which  required  to  be  bruised,  crushed,  brought  to  nothing 


THE  ANTE-NATAL  LIFE  151 

in  him,  that  the  holy,  heavenly  nature  which  he  had  lost  might 
be  renewed  in  him.  He  now,  as  I  take  it,  imparted  to  Adam, 
and  consequently  to  his  whole  posterity,  a  new  principle,  or 
sensibility  of  goodness,  called  the  seed  of  the  woman — something 
of  the  holy  nature  of  Christ." 

On  the  Feast  of  our  Lord's  Nativity  we  read  that 
He  "  was  the  true  Light  which  lighteth  every  man  which 
cometh  into  the  world."  Whichever  way  we  under- 
stand this,  whether  as  meaning  that  Christ,  "on  His 
way  to  the  world,  advancing  by  preparatory  revelations, 
in  type  and  prophecy  and  judgment,"  was  lighting 
every  man;  or  that  he  lighted  each  soul  as  it  came  into 
the  world,  it  is  the  same.  It  meant  prevenient  grace, 
and  that  on  a  universal  scale;  beginning  to  "strive 
with  man"  everywhere,  for  the  sake  of  a  world-Saviour 
who  should  be  manifested  and  accomplish  His  redeem- 
ing sacrifice  in  the  fulness  of  time.  It  meant  a  gift  of 
grace  co-extensive  with  human  sinfulness,  and  that  no 
such  thing  as  "total  depravity"  or  total  unfaith 
existed,  except  possibly  in  cases  where  the  human  will 
resisted  the  Spirit  to  the  last  degree. 

Was  it  not  owing  to  this  same  new  principle  of  life, 
imparted  to  Adam  and  his  whole  posterity,  that  the 
men  of  Athens  could  understand  the  Apostle  speaking 
of  all  men  as  living  and  moving  and  having  their  being 
in  God,  and  that  certain  of  their  own  poets  had  written 
"We  are  also  his  offspring"?  Does  it  not  account 
for  the  possibility  of  Nineveh's  conversion,  for  the 
history  of  the  noble  Cyrus,  for  Socrates  and  Plato 
and  Epictetus,  and  for  Confucius;  for  the  faith  of  the 
Roman  centurion,  and  of  the  Syrophenician  woman? 

The  words  of  Bishop  Seabury,  quoted  above,  are 
cited  by  Dr.  James  Craik  in  his  book  entitled,  "The 


152         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

Divine  Life,"  written  more  than  sixty  years  ago. 
If  out  of  print,  it  ought  to  be  published  anew;  and 
though  a  clergyman  had  but  a  dozen  books  at  his 
disposal,  this  ought  to  be  one  of  them.  It  brings  to 
view  the  truth  that  God  does  not  now  call  upon  men 
everywhere  to  believe,  without  first  having  empowered 
them  to  believe  and  to  turn  from  sin.  Bishop  Otey, 
of  Tennessee,  quoted  by  Dr.  Craik,  referring  to  the 
"world-wide  restoration  of  man's  spiritual  capacity, 
the  gift  of  God  in  Christ, — a  free,  unmerited  gift  to 
every  human  being  endowed  with  a  rational  soul," 
had  even  said,  "in  this  subordinate  sense  all  men  may 
be  said  to  be  regenerate.  For  thus  argues  the  Apostle: 
'By  the  righteousness  of  one  [that  is  Christ]  the  free 
gift  came  upon  all  men  unto  justification  of  life. ' ;: 

Wherever  signs  of  this,  which  may  be  termed  the 
ante-natal  life,  are  discovered,  they  bear  witness  to 
His  presence  and  power  who  is  the  Lord,  and  Giver 
of  Life,  in  the  realm  of  nature  and  of  grace  alike.  As 
in  the  month  of  March  there  is  life  before  birth  under 
the  brown  soil  and  in  the  leafless  trees  and  vines,  so 
was  there  moral  and  spiritual  life  in  the  wide  Gentile 
world;  and  we  discover  it  to-day  in  heathen  lands, 
in  many  at  home  who  do  not  call,  or  it  may  be  even 
think,  themselves  Christians. 

In  the  Scriptures,  and  therefore  in  the  Prayer  Book, 
baptism  with  water  and  the  Spirit  is  called  the  New 
Birth,  and  this  it  is  as  introducing  us  into  the  Church, 
the  Spirit's  own  creation  and  care.  Conversion,  which 
is  the  distinct  turning  of  the  individual  will  to  God,  — 
and  Confirmation,  which  is  a  blessing  on  that  personal 
free  choice  of  Him  and  His  holy  will  as  our  true  end, — 
determine,  seal,  expand  and  enrich  the  soul's  life.  But 


THE  ANTE-NATAL  LIFE  153 

prior  to  these,  and  before  the  so-called  New  Birth 
itself,  exists  the  universal,  perfectly  free  gift,  correspond- 
ing to  the  hidden  life  in  the  soil  and  the  plant. 

It  is  this  which,  as  conveyed  to  multitudes  in  heathen 
lands,  by  means  of  ancient  traditions,  or  institutions, 
and  by  the  direct  influence  of  the  Spirit,  is  proving 
each  year  a  more  interesting  study  to  our  missionaries, 
and  is  persuading  them  that  Christ  has  been  there 
before  them.  Those  are  significant  words  quoted  by  Her- 
bert W.  Horwill  in  The  Atlantic  Monthly  for  April,  1911 : 

'"There  is  no  reason  whatever  for  Christian  propaganda,' 
they  conclude,  'unless  the  missionary  has  something  new  to 
proclaim;  but  it  is  equally  certain  that  there  is  no  basis  whatever 
for  the  missionary  appeal  unless  the  missionary  can  say,  "Whom 
therefore  ye  worship  in  ignorance  him  declare  I  unto  you." 
Even  where  the  native  faith  itself  seems  to  offer  few  points  of 
contact  with  Christianity,  there  is  sure  to  be  in  the  minds  of  the 
people  some  upward  impulse,  some  desire  for  deliverance  from 
evil  powers,  some  vague'  aspirations  for  a  higher  life,  which  may 
in  some  measure  be  used  as  a  preparatio  evangelical  " 

In  "Mankind  and  the  Church,"  by  Seven  Bishops, 
the  Archbishop  of  the  West  Indies  writes  (page  11): 

"If  even  some  missionaries,  when  first  realizing  the  depth  of 
native  degradation,  should  have  concluded  that  the  African 
with  whom  they  came  in  contact  was  without  the  knowledge  of 
God,  this  would  not  be  surprising.  But  whatever  may  have  led, 
in  any  such  case,  to  such  a  conclusion,  it  is  a  profound  mis- 
take. *  *  *  They  know  of  a  Being  superior  to  themselves 
of  whom  they  themselves  say  that  He  is  the  Maker  and  Father. 
*  *  It  may  be  considered  quite  certain  that  the  negro 
mind  even  in  his  original  savagery,  is  strongly  imbued  with  a 
belief  in  the  existence  of  a  great  Creator  and  Ruler.  *  *  *  It 
is  in  keeping  with  the  original  bent  of  the  negro  mind,  though 
modified  and  developed  by  Christianity,  that  the  negro  Christian 
is  especially -strong  in  the  habit  of  realizing  the  presence  and 


154         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

power  of  God  in  all  nature,  in  all  life,  in  all  circumstances; 
recognizes  in  all  the  providences  of  human  life  the  hand  of  a 
loving  ever-present  Divine  Father." 

Of  the  same  kind, — and  to  be  acknowledged  thank- 
fully as  signs  of  the  universal  saving  efficiency  of  our 
Lord's  Sacrifice,  and  as  fruits  of  the  personal  Spirit, — 
are  the  good  impulses  and  desires  of  non-Christians 
discoverable  by  the  stethescope  of  our  sympathetic 
faith, — even  conspicuous  acts  of  kind  and  just  dealing, 
deeds  of  self-denial,  equal  if  not  superior  to  the  actions 
of  many  professing  Christianity.  No  man  thought- 
fully observing  these,  and  knowing  the  testimony  of 
the  Scriptures  regarding  the  Spirit's  relation  to  man- 
kind as  redeemed  in  Christ,  will  ever  declare,  as  Romans 
do,  that  "in  Baptism  grace  is  first  infused";  or  on 
the  other  hand  assert,  with  the  popular,  loose  theology 
of  dissent,  that  grace  is  given  only  after  or  at  con- 
version. Nor  will  he  be  of  those  who,  as  Dr.  Craik 
expresses  it,  are  accustomed  to  refer  the  manifest  good 
that  is  in  all  men  to  what  they  style  "mere  human 
virtues," — carefully  abstracting  from  the  said  human 
virtues  all  possible  influence  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  As 
Dr.  Craik  shows  at  considerable  length,  all  the  expres- 
sions of  the  Prayer  Book  are  consistent  with  the  truth 
of  the  universality  of  divine  grace.  If  only  Churchmen 
themselves  had  always  spoken  and  acted  in  accordance 
with  it,  giving  glory  to  that  Spirit,  "whom  with  the 
Father  and  the  Son  together  we  worship  and  [say  that 
we]  glorify  as  one  God!" 

Had  they  but  taught  and  lived  by  this  heavenly 
truth  there  would  have  been  less  reason  for  that  relig- 
ious enthusiast,  of  pure  life  and  unimpeachable  sin- 
cerity, George  Fox,  to  arise  and  bring  forward  his 


THE  ANTE-NATAL  LIFE  155 

doctrine  of  the  universal  inward  light.     Robert  Barclay 
would  not  have  needed  to  proclaim  that 

"God  out  of  His  infinite  love,  who  delighteth  not  in  the  death 
of  a  sinner,  but  that  all  should  live  and  be  saved,  hath  so  loved 
the  world  that  He  hath  given  His  only  Son  a  light,  that  whoso- 
ever believeth  in  Him  should  be  saved;  who  enlighteneth  every 
man  that  cometh  into  the  world-  *  *  *  Therefore  Christ 
hath  tasted  death  for  every  man;  not  only  for  all  kinds  of  men, 
as  some  vainly  talk,  but  for  every  one,  of  all  kinds;  the  benefit 
of  whose  offering  is  not  only  extended  to  such  as  have  the  distinct 
outward  knowledge  of  His  death  and  sufferings,  as  the  same  is 
declared  in  the  Scriptures,  but  even  unto  those  who  are  necessarily 
excluded  from  the  benefit  of  this  knowledge  by  some  inevitable 
accident;  which  knowledge  we  willingly  confess  to  be  very 
profitable  and  comfortable,  but  not  absolutely  needful  unto  such 
from  whom  God  Himself  had  withheld  it." 

Curteis,  in  the  Bampton  Lectures  in  1871  on  Dissent 
in  its  Relations  to  the  Church  of  England,  writes  (page 
264): 

"I  fear  not  to  say  that  within  the  Church  of  England,  no  less 
than  among  the  Dissenting  Communions,  this  doctrine  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  and  of  His  indwelling  light  has  been  far  too  little 
heard.  And  therefore,  when  in  the  seventeenth  century  a 
fragment  (as  it  were)  of  her  substance  was  thrown  off  on  this 
account,  and  began  to  revolve,  not  far  away,  but  yet  in  a  separate 
orbit  of  its  own, — it  were  well  to  acknowledge  that  even  thus, 
too,  good  may  be  brought  out  of  evil  *  *  *  that  no  small 
debt  of  gratitude  is  due  to  one  who  first  (even  amid  some  error 
and  extravagance)  recovered  for  us  the  true  prominence  of  the 
third  great  section  of  the  Nicene  Creed." 

If  only  this  prominence  of  the  Spirit-truth  could 
have  been  re-asserted  by  the  Friends  without  causing 
a  new  division  in  Christ's  Body,  and  losing  out  of  sight 
other  precious  verities !  To  go  back  a  thousand  years, 


156         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

— if  only  this  all-inviting  truth,  having  been  more  fully 
exhibited  in  Christian  theology  from  the  beginning, 
might  have  been  present  to  the  mind  of  the  great 
Augustine  in  his  controversy  with  Pelagius!  It  would 
have  been  a  controversy  earlier  and  more  happily 
settled,  could  Pelagius  have  been  shown  that,  correct 
in  asserting  the  existence  of  good  in  every  man,  he 
would  have  been  wholly  so,  acknowledging  that  good 
to  be  due  to  the  dim  and  partial  light  which  went 
before,  and  which  was  to  prepare  the  way  for,  the 
life  in  the  free  air  and  sunshine  of  the  Spirit  in  the 
Church. 

The  error  of  Pelagius  still  lives.  Men  still  "vainly 
talk,"  denying  the  fault  and  corruption  of  our  nature, 
and  that  we  are, — in  the  Church  and  out  of  it, — "far 
gone  from  original  righteousness."  On  the  other  hand 
they  vainly  talk  who  continue  to  speak  of  total  deprav- 
ity, failing  to  recognize  the  partial  recovery  and  res- 
toration of  all  mankind  in  Christ  through  His  Spirit's 
world-wide  influence.  This  blessed  doctrine  tends  to 
reconcile  truths  and  men  alike.  The  sympathetic 
and  genial  preaching  of  Phillips  Brooks  would  have 
proved  even  more  convincing  and  winning  than  it  did, 
had  the  personal  Spirit  been  distinctly  brought  for- 
ward as  the  immanent,  efficient  cause  of  the  spiritual 
capacity  in  men,  which  the  preacher  constantly  recog- 
nized, and  of  those  good  impulses  to  which  he  appealed. 
There  can  be  no  harm,  but  only  benefit,  when  our 
better  selves  are  appealed  to,  if  we  are  not  allowed  to 
forget  that  the  Author  and  Finisher  of  these  new  and 
better  selves  is  the  mighty  Spirit  of  our  Ascended  Lord. 

The  truth  that  no  man  is  without  a  measure  of  the 
quickening,  enabling  Spirit  helps  us  all  to  realize  better 


THE  ANTE-NATAL  LIFE  157 

our  dependence  upon  God  for  every  good  gift.  It  is, 
as  Dr.  Craik  contended,  the  precise  refutation  of 
Pelagianism;  because  it  takes  the  very  facts  relied 
upon  for  the  support  of  that  error,  and  accounts  for 
those  facts  by  proving  them  to  depend  upon  the  gift 
of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Throughout  our  whole  life,  as  a 
race  and  as  individuals,  one  kind  or  degree  of  spiritual 
assistance  is  ministered  after  another,  or  is  ready  to  be 
ministered.  One  kind  is  the  reward  of  another  that 
has  been  well-used.  It  is  intended  to  be  a  golden 
chain  of  inward  gifts  and  powers.  As  Bishop  Westcott 
explains  "grace  for  grace,"  each  blessing  received  has 
become  the  foundation  of  a  greater  blessing.  "The 
Church  of  Christ,"  he  says,  "has  been  appointed  the 
last,  the  fullest,  and  the  most  perfect  of  the  means 
and  instrumentalities  for  the  nurture  and  development 
of  the  Divine  Life,  from  its  embyro  existence  as  a 
power  in  the  soul  of  man,  through  all  the  successive 
stages  of  growth,  to  the  maturity  of  perfect  manhood 
in  Jesus  Christ. " 

Hundreds  of  the  people  whom  we  are  liable  to  meet 
any  day,  and  whom  we  honour  as  fellow  citizens,  and 
maybe  love  as  friends,  need  to  be  guided  to  this  truth 
of  the  Spirit;  and  particularly  to  His  gracious  prelimi- 
nary work  long  going  on  in  their  own  hearts,  made 
possible  for  them,  as  for  all,  by  the  patient  and  willing 
sufferings  of  the  Redeemer.  They  need  to  be  made 
aware  that  there  is  nothing  to  be  waited  for  and  much 
yet  to  be  done ;  to  pass  on  and  upward  to  higher  and 
more  lasting  things  in  Christ  and  the  Spirit.  The 
Sonship  of  the  Race,  which  they  have  been  faintly 
conscious  of  as  being  for  themselves,  is  rudimentary, 
and  as  it  were  a  matter  of  course.  The  capacity  for 


158         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

receiving  the  Divine  Life  which  these  recognize  as  in 
a  degree  existing  in  them  is,  so  to  speak,  native  to  all; 
and  of  this  also  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  has  paid  the 
price.  But  the  actual  realization  of  their  sonship  is 
possible  only  through  Christ,  and  it  is  through  the 
Spirit  that  this  final  and  more  glorious  possession  will 
come,  if  they  will  co-operate  with  Him, — will  receive 
Him,  and  live  and  walk  in  Him. 

Is  not  the  Season  of  the  Spirit  a  season  in  which  to 
press  this  truth  home?  to  tell  the  thousands  of 
whom  it  would  be  true,  "Alive  you  are  indeed,  thank 
God,  according  to  the  Scripture;  nevertheless,  — accord- 
ing to  Scripture,  and  by  your  own  failure  to  under- 
stand and  act, — not  yet  born." 


THE  CHURCH  AND  PREDESTINATION 

I  am  the  light  of  the  world. — John  8  :  12. 

Ye  are  the  light  of  the  world. — Matt.  5  :  14. 

The  Spirit  of  truth  shall  testify  of  me. — John  15  :  26. 

Ye  shall  be  witnesses  unto  me, — unto  the  uttermost  part  of 
the  earth. — Acts  1  :  8. 

To  the  intent  that  now  unto  the  principalities  and  the  powers 
in  the  heavenly  places  might  be  made  known  through  the  church 
the  manifold  wisdom  of  God  according  to  the  eternal  purpose 
which  he  purposed  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord. — Eph.  3  :  10,  11. 

Whom  he  foreknew  he  also  fore-ordained  to  be  conformed  to 
the  image  of  his  Son,  that  he  might  be  the  firstborn  among  many 
brethren.— Rom.  8  :  29. 

The  eternal  purpose  which  he  purposed  in  Christ  Jesus  our 
Lord,  in  whom  we  have  boldness  and  access  in  confidence  through 


THE  CHURCH  AND  PREDESTINATION          159 

our  faith  in  him.  *  *  *  To  apprehend  with  all  the  saints 
what  is  the  breadth  and  length  and  height  and  depth,  and  to 
know  the  love  of  Christ,  which  passeth  knowledge,  that  ye  may 
be  filled  unto  all  the  fulness  of  God.— Eph.  3  :  11,  18,  19. 

God  our  Saviour;  who  willeth  that  all  men  should  be  saved, 
and  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth. —  1st  Tim.  2  :  4. 

The  predestination  of  which  Paul  speaks  is  not  a  predestina- 
tion to  faith,  but  a  predestination  to  glory,  founded  on  the  pre- 
vision of  faith.  *  *  *  What  the  decree  of  predestination 
embraces  is  the  realization  of  the  image  of  the  Son  in  all  foreknown 
believers.  *  *  *  God  wished  to  have  for  Himself  a  family 
of  sons;  and  therefore  He  determined  in  the  first  place  to  make 
His  own  Son  our  brother.  *  *  *  Thus  what  comes  out  as  the 
end  of  the  divine  decree  is  the  creation  of  a  great  family  of  men 
made  partakers  of  the  divine  existence  and  action,  in  the  midst 
of  which  the  glorified  Jesus  shines  as  the  prototype. — Godet. 

Much  is  said  in  Scripture  of  God's  will  that  all  should  be 
saved,  and  of  Christ's  death  as  sufficient  for  all  men;  and  we 
hear  of  none  shut  out  from  salvation,  but  for  their  own  faults 
and  demerits.  More  than  this  cannot  be  inferred  from  Scripture; 
for  it  appears  most  probable  that  what  we  learn  there  concerns 
only  predestination  to  grace,  there  being  no  revelation  concerning 
predestination  to  glory. — Bishop  Harold  Browne. 

The  ecclesiastical  instincts  of  average  catholic  churchmanship 
had  grown  up  in  an  atmosphere  of  Free  Will  equipped  with  sacra- 
ments, to  which  the  Augustinian  doctrine  of  Grace  was  not,  nor 
ever  could  become,  wholly  congenial.  Augustine  himself  never 
reached  a  real  synthesis  of  the  two. — Bishop  Robertson. 

The  originator  of  the  later  doctrine  of  predestination  was  St. 
Augustine,  one  of  the  greatest,  if  not  the  very  greatest,  of  the 
Fathers  of  the  Church,  who,  nevertheless,  by  his  teaching 
of  that  doctrine,  poisoned  and  corrupted  the  religion  he 
professed. — Fulton. 

The  theory  of  the  Westminster  divines  is  not  the  theory  of 
the  apostle  Paul.  When  he  speaks  of  God  as  electing  men, 
choosing  them,  foreordaining  them,  predestinating  them,  he 
means  something  very  different  from  what  Calvinism  means  by 
the  same  words. — R.  W.  Dale. 


160         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

The  chapters  in  Romans  on  the  election  of  Israel  have  been 
by  scholastic  theology  put  to  uses  for  which  they  were  never 
intended.  They  are  not  a  contribution  to  the  doctrine  of  the 
eternal  predestination  of  individuals  to  everlasting  life  or  death. 
Their  theme  is  not  the  election  of  individuals,  but  of  a  people. 
*  *  *  Still  more  important  is  it  to  note  that  election  is  not 
conceived  of  as  an  arbitrary  choice  to  the  enjoyment  of  benefits 
from  which  all  others  are  excluded.  Election  is  to  function  as 
well  as  to  favour,  and  the  function  has  the  good  of  others  besides 
the  elect  in  view.  *  *  *  In  the  teaching  of  Christ  the  elect 
appear  as  the  light,  the  salt,  and  the  leaven  of  the  world.  It  is 
a  vital  truth  strangely  overlooked  in  elaborate  creeds  large  enough 
to  have  room  for  many  doctrines  much  less  important,  and  far 
from  recognized  as  yet  even  in  the  living  faith  of  the  Church, though 
the  missionary  spirit  of  modern  Christianity  may  be  regarded  aa 
an  unconscious  homage  to  its  importance. — Prof.  Bruce. 

Text-criticism,  careful  study  of  the  context,  piti- 
fully neglected  in  former  times,  and  especially  "higher 
criticism"  as  applied  to  the  time  of  composition, 
circumstances,  and  leading  purpose  of  the  respective 
writings,  together  with  the  personality  and  soul- 
experience  of  their  inspired  authors,  have  all  tended 
to  shed  a  new  and  warmer  light  upon  many  books 
of  the  Bible.  This  is  notably  true  of  three  books 
which  fill  a  large  and  important  place  in  the  services  of 
the  Trinity  Season;  namely,  The  Acts,  Romans,  and 
Ephesians.  The  first,  read  ten  Sunday  mornings 
in  succession,  beginning  at  once  after  Trinity  Sunday, 
the  second,  read  in  four  altar-services,  beginning 
with  the  Fourth  after  Trinity,  and  lastly  Ephesians, 
read  five  Sundays,  beginning  with  the  Sixteenth  after 
Trinity  and  ending  with  the  Twenty-first,  have  for 
their  subject  various  aspects  of  the  Truth  of  the  Church, 
as  a  divine-human  instrument  in  the  hand  of  the 
Holy  Spirit, — "the  house  of  God,  which  is  the  church 


THE  CHURCH  AND  PREDESTINATION          161 

of  the  living  God,  the  pillar  and  ground  of  the  truth"; 
a  body,  or  state,  in  which  none  are  "strangers  and 
foreigners"  but  all  are  "fellow-citizens";  to  employ 
terms  grown  familiar  of  late,  a  world-wide  spiritual 
corporation,  in  trust  with  the  most  precious  possessions 
and  interests  of  man,  under  the  presidency  and  control- 
ling management  of  the  Third  Person  in  the  Godhead 
Himself. 

All  who  have  remarked  the  large  proportion  of  the 
Services  after  Trinity  dominated  by  this  Church- 
Truth,  can  hardly  fail  to  realize  how  much  prayerful 
thought  is  due  to  what  St.  Paul  in  Ephesians  describes 
as  the  "hope"  of  the  "calling  wherewith  we  are  called" 
by  Christ,  and  "the  riches  of  the  glory  of  His  inherit- 
ance in  the  saints,"  and  the  surpassing  greatness  of 
His  "power  to  usward  who  believe,"  and  which  he 
finally  sums  up  in  the  one  rich  phrase,  "the  church 
which  is  his  body,  the  fulness  of  him  which  filleth 
all  in  all."  In  the  next  chapter  it  is  termed  "an 
habitation  of  God  through  the  Spirit,"  and  hi  the 
third  characterized  in  the  comprehensive  and  eloquent 
words,  "  the  breadth  and  length  and  depth  and  height," 
or  "the  love  of  Christ  which  passeth  knowledge"; 
for  to  His  Apostle,  the  richness  and  fulness  of 
the  destiny  of  mankind  as  redeemed,  restored,  trans- 
figured and  glorified  in  the  risen  Son  of  Man  means 
all  these  things. 

It  will  not  be  difficult  to  realize  why  Protestantism, 
being  a  tremendous  moral  and  spiritual  reaction  against 
the  idea  and  fact  of  the  Church  as  presented  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  should  in  the  first  place  foster  a  general 
spirit  of  religious  independency;  and  in  the  second 
place  incline  Christians  to  look  upon  their  divine 

11 


162         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

election  to  privilege  in  Christ  in  the  individual  way 
and  also  in  the  other-world  aspect  only,  neither  of 
which  ways  was  in  truth  the  way  of  St.  Paul.  Many 
might  easily  learn  to  hate  the  word  "predestination." 

Now  as  Vinet,  one  of  the  most  profound  and  origi- 
nal of  Protestants,  has  &aid,  "Protestantism  is  not 
religion;  it  is  the  principle  of  liberty  and  individuality 
applied  to  religious  things,  but  nothing  else."  Right 
in  itself  and  within  due  limits,  it  is  in  its  essence 
negative.  We  must  have  truths  and  institutions 
which  are  divine  and  positive,  and  if  Acts  and  Romans 
and  Ephesians  teach  anything,  they  teach  that  the 
Church,  created  and  guided  by  the  ever-present 
personal  Spirit,  is  one  of  the  most  divine  and  precious 
of  realities. 

Why  not  make  it  a  point  sometimes  in  this  season 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  to  picture  that  greatest  figure  in 
the  Book  of  the  Acts, — next  to  the  Holy  Ghost  Him- 
self,— the  "apostle  of  catholicity,"  St.  Paul,  as  he 
expresses  it,  longing  to  reach  the  chief  city  of  the  world? 
Wonderfully  converted  by  Christ  to  make  known 
His  "unsearchable  riches"  to  the  nations,  his  was 
the  hand  to  cast  the  purifying,  saving  salt  of  the  truth 
concerning  Christ  into  the  world-fountains  of  thought, 
of  culture,  and  of  power,  and  what  fountain  was  there 
like  Rome?  A  candle  set  on  a  candlestick,  the  Lord 
had  said,  gave  light  to  all  around;  a  city  set  on  an 
hill  could  not  be  hid.  What  candlestick  so  tall,  what 
city  so  conspicuous  in  all  the  world  as  Rome  on  its 
seven  hills? 

Why  not  portray  him  writing  a  letter  to  the  Roman 
Church  to  which,  never  having  yet  seen  it,  he  longs  to 
"impart  some  spiritual  gift"  that  it  "may  be  estab- 


THE  CHURCH  AND  PREDESTINATION          163 

lished."  Composed  of  Jews  who  had  before  hoped 
in  a  Messiah,  and  Gentiles  who  were  now  "sealed  with 
the  holy  Spirit  of  promise,"  it  was  to  him  a  type  and 
prophecy  of  the  universal  redeemed  humanity  that 
should  enjoy  "the  exceeding  riches"  of  Christ  "in 
the  ages  to  come."  In  the  final  chapter  of  the  Acts, 
behold  him  at  length  settled  in  the  imperial  city. 
Though  a  prisoner  he  may  every  day  throw  the  salt, 
and  let  the  light  of  his  divine  message  shine.  And 
there,  with  signs  of  Roman  power  and  influence  around 
him,  more  than  ever  impressed  by  the  thought  of  a 
universal  Church,  the  centre  of  a  universal  Christian 
civilization,  "a  great  family  of  men  made  partakers 
of  the  divine  existence  and  action,"  he  writes  another 
epistle, — comparable  to  the  one  to  the  Romans  them- 
selves,— addressed,  it  would  appear,  not  to  Ephesians 
only,  but  also  to  the  Christians  in  other  important 
cities  of  Asia  Minor  near  them,  and  setting  forth  the 
self-same  truth  of  "glory  in  the  Church  by  Christ 
Jesus  throughout  all  ages,  world  without  end." 

It  is,  then,  when  writing  to  Christians  in  Rome, 
or  from  Rome  to  Asiatic  Christians,  that  the  Apostle 
of  catholicity  has  this  great  truth, — expressed  in  his 
own  inspired  language,  now  by  the  "fellowship,  or 
the  economy,  of  the  mystery,"  and  again  by  "the 
breadth  and  length  and  depth  and  height"  of  divine 
love, — constantly  in  his  thoughts.  It  is  "the  power 
of  God  unto  salvation  unto  every  one  that  believeth." 
What  the  elder  Church  had  been  to  the  one  race  of 
Israel  the  Church  of  Christ  shall  be  to  all  nations. 
The  emphasis  is  always  on  this  new  and  wonderful 
event  in  human  history.  His  function  is  "to  make 
all  men  see"  it,  and  to  realize  the  eternal  divine  pur- 


164         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

pose  lying  back  of  it.  There  is  not  space  here,  nor 
are  we  here  concerned,  to  point  out  the  differences 
between  his  letter  to  the  Romans  and  his  letter  to  the 
Ephesians.  Enough  for  our  object  to  remark  that 
while  the  place  which  these  together  occupy  in  this 
Season's  services  suggests  a  thoughtful  examination 
of  both  Epistles  in  their  entirety,  the  two  main  features 
of  interest  are  the  Spirit-Truth  in  both,  and  His  clearly 
intimated  Personal  relation  to  redemption  as  Universal. 
And  inseparably  bound  up  with  these,  and  again  and 
again  enunciated,  is  the  truth  of  divine  predestination. 

That  the  last  assertion  is  correct  appears,  in  so  far 
as  Romans  are  concerned,  when  the  Epistles  for  the 
Fourth  and  Eighth  Sundays  are  studied,  in  connection 
with  their  context,  in  the  eighth  chapter.  In  this 
magnificent  eighth  chapter  of  thirty-nine  verses,  full 
of  the  exalting  resurrection  truth,  and  of  our  adoption 
in  the  Spirit;  of  hope  not  only  for  mankind  but  for 
the  whole  creation  of  which  it  is  a  part,  and  of  the 
Spirit's  intercession  within  us  when  "we  know  not 
how  to  pray  as  we  ought," — the  chapter  in  which  the 
argument  of  the  inspired  treatise  as  a  whole  culmi- 
nates, and  which  ends  with  one  of  the  Apostle's  sub- 
lime passages  which  are  rather  paeans  than  perora- 
tions,— the  Holy  Spirit  is  named  nineteen  times,  i.  e., 
once  in  every  two  verses,  while  the  climax  is  in  the  verses 
beginning,  "And  we  know  that  to  them  that  love 
God  all  things  work  together  for  good,  even  to  them 
that  are  called  according  to  his  purpose"  (vv.  28-30). 

With  Ephesians  it  is  substantially  the  same.  The 
climax  comes  (chap.  3  :  18), — on  the  Sixteenth  Sun- 
day,— in  the  glowing  words,  "to  apprehend  with  all 
the  saints  what  is  the  breadth  and  length  and  depth 


THE  CHURCH  AND  PREDESTINATION          165 

and  height,  and  to  know  the  love  of  Christ  which 
passeth  knowledge."  What  passed  knowledge  then, 
and  passes  the  knowledge  and  imagination  of  thousands 
of  good  intelligent  Christians  in  this  twentieth  cen- 
tury, is  that  the  religion  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is 
a  religion  intended  for  and  adapted  to  all  nations, 
and  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men.  And  once  more 
close  by  in  the  context,  we  come  upon  verses  speaking 
exultantly  of  "the  mystery,"  i.  e.,  the  revelation,  of  the 
election  of  the  nations,  "according  to  the  eternal 
purpose"  which  God  "purposed  in  Christ  Jesus  our 
Lord,  in  whom  we  have  boldness  and  access  in 
confidence  through  our  faith  in  him." 

Here  also  close  by  is  the  truth  of  the  ever-present, 
loving,  Spirit  of  universality  and  unity.  In  this  short 
Epistle,  about  one  third  as  long  as  Romans,  the  Holy 
Ghost  is  named  twelve  times,  twice  in  this  third 
chapter,  once  in  immediate  connection  with  the 
truth  of  predestination  to  spiritual  privilege  in  a  Church 
which  is  catholic.  It  is  when  strengthened  with 
might  through  Christ's  Spirit  in  the  inner  man  that 
Christians  will  "be  strong  to  apprehend"  the  generous, 
— the  world-wide, — application  of  the  Gospel  truth 
and  life  to  men.  The  graces  and  virtues  of  Chris- 
tians mentioned, — fruits  of  the  Spirit, — are  such  as 
not  only  become  saints  thus  favoured  and  honoured  of 
God,  but  also  tend  to  "build  up  the  body  of  Christ," 
till  all  shall  "attain  unto  the  unity  of  the  faith  and  of 
the  knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God."  And  just  so  is  it 
in  the  last  five  chapters  of  Romans,  ushered  in  by  one 
of  the  Apostle's  significant  and  powerful  "therefores": 
"I  beseech  you  therefore,  brethren,  by  the  mercies 
of  God,  to  present  your  bodies  a  living  sacrifice." 


166         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

Dr.  Trumbull's  book,  "Our  Misunderstood  Bible," 
should  contain  a  chapter  entitled  "Our  Misunderstood 
Apostle  to  the  Nations  of  the  West."  St.  Peter,  we 
remember,  writes  (2d  Pet.  3  :  15,  16)  of  his  "beloved 
brother  Paul"  saying  some  things  hard  to  be  under- 
stood, which  the  "  ignorant  and  unstedfast  wrest  unto 
their  own  destruction."  He  little  realized  how  many 
saintly  men  and  women,  by  no  means  "ignorant  or 
unstedfast,"  would  in  later  ages  misapprehend  some 
of  St.  Paul's  most  fundamental  and  precious  teach- 
ings. There  is  not  a  more  vital  and  practical  element 
in  the  Church's  divine  Message, — nor  a  more  winning 
one, — than  the  truth  of  election  rightly  apprehended. 
If  in  those  early  days  when  it  was  a  secret  newly 
"made  known,"  and  alike  to  the  Jews  and  the  other 
Nations,  unprepared  for  such  a  universal  fellowship 
in  the  risen  Christ,  it  seemed  too  good  to  be  true, 
and  by  reason  of  human  weakness  and  prejudice 
too  difficult  of  realization  to  be  true, — and  there  was 
need  of  one  whose  letters  were  weighty  and  powerful, 
though  his  bodily  presence  might  be  weak,  to  make 
all  men  know  that  behind  the  marvellous  new 
"dispensation"  was  a  "purpose  of  God"  which 
was  not  new,  but  rather  "from  before  the  foundation 
of  the  world," — must  it  not  be  confessed  that  the 
Church  needs  at  least  to  be  reminded  of  this 
fact  in  our  own  day?  Are  there  not  many  in  this 
twentieth  century  to  whom  the  thought  of  a  universal 
Christianity  seems  too  good  to  be  true,  and  a  universal 
brotherhood,  of  the  nations  or  of  individuals,  too 
difficult  to  bring  about?  The  catholic  and  genuine 
doctrine  of  election  is  one  which  men  require  often 
to  have  brought  home  to  them.  Thousands  there  are 


THE  CHURCH  AND  PREDESTINATION          167 

who  require  and  would  love  to  be  taught,  that  it  is  no 
iron  chain  of  logic  like  that  of  Augustine  and  Calvin, 
binding  some  prisoners  of  hope,  as  it  were,  and  others 
prisoners  of  despair,  but  the  golden  chain  Christ 
would  by  His  Spirit  throw  around  the  neck  of  His 
Bride  the  universal  Church,  to  draw  her  each  day 
nearer  to  Him  "in  boldness  and  access  with  con- 
fidence, by  faith  in  him."  In  every  good  impulse, 
every  least  drawing  toward  Him,  to  be  detected  in 
themselves,  however  seldom,  these  thousands  should 
be  taught  to  recognize  the  glint  of  that  century-old 
chain  of  loving  divine  " purpose."  We  all  need  to  form 
a  habit  of  looking  out  for  and  discerning  the  shining 
of  it  in  others.  Home  missionaries  and  foreign, 
and  workers  in  prisons  and  reformatories,  discovering 
faint  signs  of  the  Spirit's  presence,  may  take  courage  and 
say,  "these  are  of  God,  who  having ' reconciled  all  things 
to  himself  in  Christ/  will  'have  all  men  to  be  saved.'" 
One  of  the  most  important  practical  bearings 
of  the  real  truth  of  election  remains  to  be  touched 
upon,  namely,  its  bearing  on  Missions.  It  has  been 
admirably  well  said,  that 

"The  idea  of  election  has  had  a  very  false  turn  given  to  it, 
partly  because  it  has  been  separated  from  another  idea  with 
which  in  the  Bible  it  is  most  closely  associated,  the  idea  of  a 
universal  purpose  to  which  the  elect  minister.  No  thought  can 
be  more  prominent  in  the  Old  Testament  than  the  thought  that 
some  men  out  of  multitudes  have  been  chosen  by  God  to  be  in  a 
special  relation  of  intimacy  with  Him.  *  *  *  But  this 
election  to  special  knowledge  of  God,  and  special  spiritual 
opportunity,  carries  with  it  a  corresponding  responsibility. 
It  is  no  piece  of  favoritism  on  God's  part.  The  greater  our 
opportunity  the  more  is  required  of  us." — (Bishop  Gore,  Epistle 
to  the  Ephesians,  page  69.) 


168         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

Have  we  realized  this  principle,  have  we  lived  up 
to  it  ourselves,  have  we  inculcated  it  as  we  ought? 
It  applies  alike  to  nations  and  individuals.  As  truly 
as  Abraham,  or  Jacob,  or  the  people  of  Israel  were 
chosen  of  God  to  be  the  bearers  of  Messiah  to  the 
world,  so  truly  is  the  English-speaking  race,  and 
each  individual  Christian  belonging  to  it,  "chosen" 
to  give  Christ  to  the  world  of  to-day.  The  only 
question  for  us  each  and  all,  is  how  best  we  can  do  it. 
He  who  said  one  day,  "I  am  the  light  of  the  world," 
said  another  day  to  His  disciples,  "Ye  are  the  light  of 
the  world."  He  said,  "The  Spirit  shall  testify  of  me," 
and  another  time,  "Ye  shall  be  witnesses  unto  me — 
unto  the  uttermost  part  of  the  earth."  How  much 
this  ought  to  mean  to  a  people  living  in  touch  with  the 
uttermost  parts  of  the  earth,  and  "allowed  of  God 
to  be  put  in  trust  with  the  Gospel"  in  its  purity! 

Two  things,  then,  ought  to  be  written  on  every 
Christian's  heart.  Election  is  to  present  privilege; 
and  it  is  "no  piece  of  favoritism."  That  to  which 
he  is  foreordained  of  God  is  "to  be  conformed  to  the 
image  of  his  Son,"  and  for  Christ  Himself  the  voice 
that  came,  "This  is  my  beloved  Son,"  was  a  call  to 
service  and  suffering  for  a  lost  race.  Each  golden 
link  in  the  chain  divinely  thrown  around  him, — 
knowledge,  talent,  position,  wealth,  a  sensitive  con- 
science even,  and  the  will  and  strength  to  believe, 
examined  closely  will  be  found  marked  with  legends 
like,  "noblesse  oblige,"-  -"Ye  are  the  light  of  the 
world, — Ye  shall  be  my  witnesses."  In  no  con- 
ceivable sense  can  "Sauve  qui  peut,"  or  "Devil 
take  the  hindmost,"  be  mottoes  for  the  escutcheon 
of  the  Christian  soldier.  It  is  chiefly  in  labouring  and 


THE  CHURCH  AND  PREDESTINATION          169 

giving  to  save  others,  that  we  save  ourselves  in 
Christ.  We  "assure  our  hearts  before  God,"  and  make 
our  own  "calling  and  election  sure"  more  than  all 
in  the  act  of  calling  others  "into  the  kingdom  of  the 
Son  of  his  love." 

The  self-same  Spirit  who  had  urged  St.  Paul  on  to 
ancient  Troy,  and  thence  beckoned  him  over  the 
jEgean  Sea  into  Greece  by  the  vision  of  the  man  of 
Macedonia,  and  filled  him  later  with  the  desire  to 
visit  Rome,  gave  him  while  in  Rome  a  vision  of  yet 
wider  import.  Impressed  naturally  by  the  near  view 
of  Rome's  imperial  majesty  and  power,  beginning 
however  to  decline,  he  is  enabled  by  the  Spirit  to  fore- 
see a  tune  when  Christ's  kingdom  spreading  out  upon 
the  lines  of  this  now  decaying  empire  shall  fill  all  in 
all,  beholds  the  breadth  and  length  and  depth  and 
height  of  that  new  universal  empire  of  the  King  of 
kings,  which  to-day  we  call  Christianity.  The  very 
soldier  who  guards  him,  whose  helmet  and  shield 
and  sword  and  sandals  suggest  the  spiritual  equip- 
ment of  the  soldier  of  Christ,  suggests  also,  by  his 
disciplined  obedience  and  soldierly  bearing,  the  dignity 
and  energy  of  Rome,  but  also  the  greater  authority 
of  Him  who  deserves  and  claims  our  eternal  obedience. 

It  is  a  vision  of  spiritual  power;  like  that  of  Zech- 
ariah,  when  "the  Lord  returned  to  Jerusalem  with 
mercies,"  saying:  "My  cities  through  prosperity  shall 
yet  be  spread  abroad."  The  seven  lamps,  seen  each 
with  its  pipe  of  olive  oil,  represent  the  Spirit's  inner 
life,  and  the  word  of  the  Lord  unto  Zerubbabel  is, 
"Not  by  might,  nor  by  power,  but  by  my  Spirit, 
saith  the  Lord  of  hosts."  To  the  careful  student  of 
the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  which  Coleridge  called 


170         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

"the  profoundest  book  in  existence,"  and  which  is 
none  the  less  essentially  practical, — Godet  remarks, 
"the  probability  is  that  every  great  spiritual  revival 
in  the  Church  will  be  connected  as  cause  and  effect 
with  a  deeper  understanding  of  this  book," — to  the 
student  of  Ephesians  also,  it  will  be  plain  that  St. 
Paul's  thought  is  throughout  like  the  thought  of 
Zechariah. 

The  thought  of  St.  Augustine  about  four  centuries 
later  was  the  same.  "The  City  of  God,"  perhaps 
the  most  elaborate  and  in  some  respects  the  most 
significant  work  which  came  from  his  pen,  is  a  great 
apologetic  treatise  in  vindication  of  Christianity  and 
the  Christian  Church,  conceived  as  rising  in  the  form 
of  a  new  civilization  on  the  crumbling  ruins  of  the 
Roman  Empire;  and  it  is  true  to  St.  Paul's  conception. 
The  whole  armour  of  the  Church  is  with  Augustine 
St.  Paul's  "whole  armour  of  God,"  not  temporal  but 
spiritual;  truth,  righteousness,  the  readiness  and 
boldness  of  the  gospel  of  peace,  the  sword  of  the 
Spirit,  prayer  in  the  Spirit. 

If  only  the  Latin  Church  had  remained  true  to  the 
Pauline  and  Augustinian  ideal;  had  not  developed  it 
into  that  of  "an  omnipotent  hierarchy  set  over  nations 
and  kingdoms  to  pluck  up  and  to  break  down  and  to 
destroy,  and  to  overthrow  and  to  build  and  to  plant!" 
(Bishop  Robertson,  "Regnum  Dei,"  page  222.) 

It  is  a  truth  to  be  preached  about, — why  not  in  the 
Spirit's  Season  especially? — that  we  need  to  return, 
and  that  it  is  not  always  easy  to  return,  to  the 
spiritual  ideal  and  method  of  spreading  the  Kingdom, 
and  of  working  or  "running"  the  Church.  It  has 
not  been  the  temptation  of  Rome  alone  to  look  to 


CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  171 

might  and  power,  and  forget  God's  Spirit.  Good, 
pious,  Protestant  Catholics  themselves  need  sometimes 
to  be  reminded  that  the  "wires"  of  earthly  policy 
can  never  take  the  place  of  the  "golden  pipes"  and 
the  "golden  oil"  of  the  divine  Paraclete.  The  lesson 
is  manifold.  Priests,  vestrymen,  people,  we  are  prone 
to  make  generous  use  of  worldly  methods  and  devices; 
depend  upon  fine  architecture  and  fine  music,  wealth, 
social  influence,  and  much  machinery,  rather  than 
upon  the  word  and  prayer;  trust  to  tact,  management, 
statesmanlike  policy,  if  not  to  politics  and  the 
secular  power,  instead  of  recollecting  God's  "eternal 
purpose  in  Christ,"  and  invoking  the  personal  Spirit. 
It  appears  at  times  as  though  like  certain  Christians 
St.  Paul  found  at  Ephesus  (Acts  19  :  2)  we  had 
not  "so  much  as  heard  whether  there  be  any  Holy 
Ghost."  Again  Zechariah  and  the  golden  pipes 
come  to  mind.  "And  he  (the  angel)  answered  me  and 
said,  Knowest  thou  not  what  these  be?  And  I  said, 
No,  my  lord.  Then  said  he,  These  are  the  two  sons 
of  oil,  that  stand  by  the  Lord  of  the  whole  earth." 


CHRISTIAN  NURTURE 

Suffer  little  children,  and  forbid  them  not,  to  come  unto  me, 
for  of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  And  he  laid  his  hands  on 
them.— Matt.  19  :  14,  15. 

Repent  and  be  baptized.  *  *  *  The  promise  [of  the 
Spirit]  is  unto  you  and  to  your  children. — Acts  2  :  38,  39. 

One  part  of  the  blessing  of  Abraham,  to  which  we  are  heirs, 


172        THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

was  to  have  his  children  visibly  and  sacramentally  united  with 
him  in  the  covenant  of  redemption.  By  what  enactment  of 
Christ  was  this  precious  part  of  the  blessing  of  Abraham  taken 
away  from  us,  his  Gentile  children? — Craik. 

Young  children  are  the  fittest  subjects  of  the  new  birth,  because 
the  nurture  thereby  secured  to  them  will  be  much  more  effectual 
to  its  purpose,  the  formation  of  a  Christ-like  character,  than 
the  same  nurture  applied  to  the  adult  subject. — Ibid. 

In  the  morning  sow  thy  seed  and  in  the  evening  withhold 
not  thine  hand. — EC.  11:6. 

Train  up  a  child  in  the  way  he  should  go:  and  when  he  is  ojd 
he  will  not  depart  from  it. — Prov.  22  :  6. 

Ye  fathers,  provoke  not  your  children  to  wrath;  but  bring 
them  up  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord. — Eph.  6  :  4. 

I  know  him  [Abraham]  that  he  will  command  his  children 
and  his  household  after  him,  and  they  shall  keep  the  way  of 
the  Lord.— Gen.  18  :  19. 

He  went  down  with  them  and  came  to  Nazareth,  and  was 
subject  unto  them.  *  *  *  And  Jesus  increased  in  wisdom 
and  stature  and  in  favour  with  God  and  man. — Luke  2  :  51,  52. 

Conversion  is  that  gradual  and  ceaseless  change  of  the  renewed 
soul  by  which  all  the  powers  and  affections  of  man  are  trans- 
formed into  the  image  of  Christ. — Craik. 

The  essence  of  conversion, — not  to  be  confounded  with  regen- 
eration,— is  a  true  movement  of  the  will,  turning  solidly  from 
self  and  the  world.  It  is  a  fatal  mistake  to  suppose  that  con- 
version must  be  exactly  alike  in  all.  It  wears  different  aspects 
in  different  men,  according  to  their  temperament,  and  their 
circumstances.  With  some  it  comes  almost  unperceived,  like 
the  moment  when  the  sun  begins  to  appear  above  the  horizon. 
With  others  it  comes  through  agonizing  struggles,  and  on  a 
sudden.  But  in  the  most  sudden  cases  there  has  been  a  long, 
secret  preparation;  and  in  the  most  quiet  there  is  a  definite 
point  at  which  the  turning  begins  to  be  truly  voluntary. — Mason. 

Unquestionably,  regeneration,  which  makes  us  children  of 
God,  is  a  higher  benefit  than  conversion,  which  makes  us  begin 
to  be  good  men;  yet,  unless  it  be  preceded,  or  accompanied,  or 


CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  173 

followed,  by  conversion,  it  will  avail  a  man  nothing,  or  rather 
increase  his  condemnation. — Ibid. 

There  is  not  a  more  glorious  operation  of  the  Spirit, 
or  one  for  which  we  shall  with  greater  love  and  gratitude 
worship  and  glorify  Him  hereafter, — there  is  none  more 
suitable  for  consideration  in  this,  His  Season, — than 
His  work  in  young  hearts.  The  word  "suitable"  falls 
far  short  of  being  forcible  enough,  in  view  of  the  con- 
fusions and  inversions  of  thought  and  practice  in  regard 
to  the  treatment  of  the  young  involved  in  the  modern 
popular  theology.  The  first  Whitsunday  sermon  ever 
preached,  and  the  first  preached  on  the  Holy  Spirit, 
contained  a  word  of  vital  importance  concerning  the 
children.  We  can  be  sure  that  Jewish  ears  had  been 
attent  to  hear  that  word:  "The  promise," — that  is  to 
say,  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost, — "is  unto  you,  and  to 
your  children."  Bitter  and  relentless  were  the  Jews 
in  their  opposition  to  the  infant  Church,  and  it  has  been 
rightly  said  that  excitement  and  clamour  would  have 
arisen,  and  those  inclined  to  be  baptized  into  the 
Messiah's  name  been  terribly  shocked,  if  "for  the  first 
time  in  the  economy  of  redemption  the  children  of 
believers  had  been  excluded  from  the  kingdom  of  grace." 
Not  a  whisper  of  opposition  appears  to  have  been  heard; 
for  as  in  the  ancient  Church  parents  and  children  had 
been  as  one  in  the  covenant  of  redemption, — the  sacra- 
ment of  initiation,  Circumcision,  being  administered 
on  the  eighth  day  after  birth, — so  they  perceived  it  was 
to  be  in  the  new,  wider,  and  more  richly  endowed  Church 
of  Christ.  He  would  "sprinkle  many  nations,"  and 
the  children  would  be  accepted  and  made  clean,  and 
be  "children  of  God."  This  was  evidently  the  way 
at  the  baptism  hi  the  home  of  Cornelius  the  centurion; 


174         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

nor  was  any  other  idea  suggested  until,  in  the  twelfth 
century,  "one  Peter  de  Bruis,  a  crazy  fanatic,  held  that 
those  who  died  in  infancy  could  not  be  saved,  and  there- 
fore ought  not  to  be  baptized." 

This  theme  finds  a  place  the  more  naturally  in  this 
Season  of  the  Christian  Year,  because  it  is  a  period  of 
seed-sowing,  of  growth,  and  of  ripening  fruits;  and  the 
Scripture  implies  that  the  economy  of  nature  in  the 
germination  of  seeds,  and  in  the  nourishment,  growth, 
and  fructification  of  plants,  corresponds  to  the  true  and 
normal  Church  life. 

How  can  the  farmer,  who  knows  as  much  practically, 
and  as  little  theoretically,  as  any  of  us  about  the  secret 
operation  of  the  Spirit  in  the  soil  and  in  the  seed, — 
knows  how  to  trust  and  wait,  and  when  the  time  comes 
to  cultivate,  knows  that  the  tiny  seed  duly  cared  for  will 
develop  into  a  fruitful  plant  or  a  wide-spreading,  cen- 
tury-lasting tree, — allow  himself  to  be  misled  into 
thinking  that  there  is  no  divine  life  in  the  soul  of  the  lad 
by  his  side,  until  he  shall  have  been  converted  as  by  a 
sudden  stroke  from  heaven?  How  can  the  farmer's 
wife,  who  plants  her  garden  seeds,  and  tends  them,  and 
makes  her  good  bread  with  wonder-working  leaven,  fail 
to  recognize  the  leaven  and  the  life  of  the  Spirit  in  her 
child's  heart,  and  accept  the  unreasoning,  unscriptural 
and  upsetting  theories  of  conversion,  which  make  it  to 
be  "the  beginning  and  almost  the  consummation  of 
spiritual  life — the  first  access  of  the  Holy  Ghost  to  the 
soul,  changing  at  once  all  its  perceptions,  thoughts, 
feelings,  and  desires"?  This,  the  popular  offspring  of 
modern  dissent,  has  perplexed  the  minds  of  the  young 
and  confounded  many  an  honest  and  intelligent  adult. 
It  has  led  thousands  to  look  upon  practical  Christianity 


CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  175 

as  an  unreality,  and  hindered  them  from  professing  the 
belief  which  is  truly  theirs. 

The  Lord  by  His  Spirit  calls  the  whole  man,  and 
demands  the  allegiance  and  the  service  of  soul  and 
body  alike  to  Himself;  and  this  never  results,  nor  can 
result,  instantly.  Our  "hydra-headed  wilfulness" 
does  not  "lose  his  seat  all  at  once."  Shakspeare's 
delightful  portrayal  of  the  sudden  change  in  young 
King  Henry  V  has  a  solely  poetical  interest.  Though 
an  archbishop  says  it,  it  is  not  quite  true  that 

"Consideration  like  an  angel  came, 
And  whipped  the  offending  Adam  out  of  him; 
Leaving  his  body  as  a  paradise, 
To  envelop  and  contain  celestial  spirits:" 

for  history  declares  that  the  stories  of  his  youthful 
extravagance  and  dissoluteness  are  unfounded  and 
improbable.  If  in  our  blessed  Lord  Himself  the  human 
will,  though  sinless,  was  "made  perfect,"  still  more 
will  it  be  the  case  with  wills  enfeebled  and  corrupted 
by  sin.  By  faith  as  a  continuing  power,  and  repentance 
as  a  continuing  discipline,  we  come  at  last  by  the  Spirit's 
good  help  to  be  made  over  again  forever. 

The  Prayer  Book  is  true  throughout  to  this  concep- 
tion, even  while  praying  for  the  new,  complete,  and 
strong  heart;  that  we  may  "give  up  ourselves  to  fulfil 
God's  holy  commandments";  that  "our  flesh  being 
subdued  to  the  Spirit,  we  may  evermore  obey  thy 
godly  motions  in  righteousness  and  true  holiness." 

As  to  the  secret,  gradual,  development  of  the  new  will 
in  the  souls  of  Christ's  children,  no  one  has  better 
appreciated  this  truth,  and  the  Spirit's  method,  so 
like  His  method  in  nature,  than  John  Keble.  Nor  did 


176         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

Keble  ever  pen  a  more  exquisite  poem  than  that  for 
the  Fourth  Sunday  in  Lent: 

"When  Nature  tries  her  finest  touch, 

Weaving  her  vernal  wreath, 
Mark  ye,  how  close  she  veils  her  round, 
Not  to  be  traced  by  sight  or  sound, 

Nor  soil'd  by  ruder  breath. 

"Who  ever  saw  the  earliest  rose 

First  open  her  sweet  breast? 
Or,  when  the  summer  sun  goes  down, 
The  first  soft  star  in  evening's  crown 

Light  up  her  gleaming  crest? 

"But  there's  a  sweeter  flower  than  e'er 

Blushed  on  the  rosy  spray, — 
A  brighter  star,  a  richer  bloom 
Than  e'er  did  western  heaven  illume 
At  close  of  summer  day. 

'"Tis  Love,  the  last  best  gift  of  Heaven; 

Love  gentle,  holy,  pure; 
But,  tenderer  than  a  dove's  soft  eye, 
The  searching  sun,  the  open  sky, 

She  never  could  endure. 

"Even  human  Love  will  shrink  from  sight 

Here  in  the  coarse  rude  earth; 
How  then  should  rash  intruding  glance 
Break  in  upon  her  sacred  trance, 

Who  boasts  a  heavenly  birth? 

"So  still  and  secret  is  her  growth, 

Ever  the  truest  heart, 
Where  deepest  strikes  her  kindly  root 
For  hope  or  joy,  for  flower  or  fruit, 

Least  knows  its  happy  part. 

"God  only,  and  good  angels,  look 

Behind  the  blissful  screen. 
*  *  *  *  * 


CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  177 

"The  gracious  Dove,  that  brought  from  Heaven 

The  earnest  of  our  bliss, 
Of  many  a  chosen  witness  telling, 
On  many  a  happy  vision  dwelling, 

Sings  not  a  note  of  this." 

Two  facts;  first,  a  general  ignoring  of  the  immensely 
important  truth  of  a  universal  preliminary  gift  of  life, 
treated  of  in  a  previous  section, — the  truth  that  as 
parents  give  to  their  children  a  sinful  nature,  so  every 
child  of  man  has  been  born  under  the  covenant  of  grace 
in  Christ  Jesus; — and  secondly,  the  confusion,  in  the 
popular  Protestant  teaching  of  regeneration,  which 
is  wholly  the  Spirit's  action,  and  which  goes  sometimes 
long  before,  with  conversion,  which  is  in  part  man's 
act,  and  should  follow  as  a  result,  have  wrought  enor- 
mous loss  to  Christ  and  His  Church,  and  to  mankind. 
Thousands  have  imagined  that  because  their  heart  and 
will  were  not  yet  turned  wholly  to  God,  the  Spirit 
could  not  yet  in  any  sense  or  degree  have  been  given 
to  them,  and  so  have  become  disheartened  or  wholly 
indifferent.  They  have  said,  "we  have  not  yet 
been  'effectually  called,'  and  what  have  we  to  do  with 
it?"  They  have  waited  for  God,  while  in  fact  He  had 
been  waiting  for  them, — from  their  child-days, — to 
use  the  grace  that  they  had. 

We  Church  people  have  not  employed  the  term 
"conversion"  as  freely  as  we  might  and  should  have 
done;  in  part,  doubtless,  by  reason  of  this  same  unhappy 
confusion  of  thought.  Even  when  free  from  it  in  our 
own  minds,  it  has  been  difficult  for  us  not  to  be  affected 
by  the  atmosphere  of  the  error.  Though  Luther  wrote 
beautifully  of  the  attitude  of  the  baptized  child's  soul 
toward  God,  resembling  its  gaze  turned  sweetly  up 
12 


178         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

to  the  mother's  face,  and  Dr.  Bushnell  of  Connecticut 
published  an  epoch-making  book,  in  Protestant  circles, 
on  Christian  Nurture, — while  Dr.  Craik  of  Kentucky 
connected  thoughts  similar  to  Bushnell's  with  the 
truth  of  the  Holy  Spirit  as  held  by  our  Church, — it  has 
not  been  easy  to  avoid  sharing  the  prevailing  cold 
indifference,  and  to  act  in  accordance  with  believing, 
encouraging,  words  like  the  following: 

"The  effect  of  a  true  Christian  culture  will  be  to  induce  the 
children  to  offer  themselves  a  living  sacrifice  to  God,  renewing 
in  their  own  persons  their  vows  of  allegiance,  and  receiving 
anew,  with  new  succours  of  heavenly  grace,  the  assurance  of  the 
'forgiveness  of  all  their  sins,'  and  of  God's  fatherly  love  and 
'gracious  goodness  towards  them.' 

"Christian  nurture  is  always  successful.  I  have  never  known 
the  child  who  had  been  taught  the  elements  of  Christian  knowl- 
edge who  was  not  religious, — who  did  not  show  a  tender  sus- 
ceptibility to  the  influences  of  religion." 

But  we  are  "labourers  together  with  God"  in  this 
husbandry  in  the  Spirit.  In  this  field  which  is  the 
wide,  wide  world  of  human  hearts,  there  is  everywhere 
life  in  the  soil,  and  plenty  of  "good  seed";  we  can  see  it 
coming  up.  But  we,  priests  and  people,  parents, 
sponsors,  and  teachers,  have  to  share  the  responsibility 
and  the  labour.  Are  we  doing  it?  We  are  partners 
with  Christ  and  the  Spirit.  Material  and  capital  are 
unlimited.  Do  we  think  to  be  "silent  partners," 
inactive  even  when  our  own  souls  and  the  souls  of 
those  near  and  dear  to  us  are  concerned? 

The  lilies  and  roses  which  adorn  our  altars  at  Easter 
or  on  Whitsunday,  or  when  the  bishop  comes,  can 
speak  to  us  of  many  wonderful  truths  besides  the  love 
of  the  divine  Spirit  in  creating  their  fragrant  beauty, 


CHRISTIANITY  A  CATHOLIC  RELIGION         179 

and  besides  Christ's  and  our  own  resurrection,  and  the 
power  of  the  Holy  Ghost  to  ennoble  and  sweeten  human 
life,  now  and  forever.  Their  way  of  turning  toward 
the  sun  may  suggest  that  unconscious,  scarcely  volun- 
tary turning  of  young  hearts  toward  God,  which  so 
often  takes  parents  and  teachers,  if  not  the  candidates 
for  confirmation  themselves,  by  surprise. 

And  whereas  the  lovely,  eloquent  flowers  presently 
fade  and  die,  the  soul's  life  and  joy  are  everlasting. 
Precisely  at  the  point  where  the  parallel  between 
nature  and  grace  fails  us,  the  glory  of  humanity  restored 
and  transfigured  in  Christ  shines  out.  How  finely 
George  Herbert  laid  hold  of  this,  picturing  the  contrast 
between  the  Sweet  Day  which,  cool,  calm,  bright, — 
bridal  of  earth  and  sky, — will  die  to-night,  and  the 
earth  will  weep  over  it;  the  sweet  Rose,  which, — its 
root  being  always  in  its  grave, — must  also  die;  the 
Sweet  Spring  which,  full  of  sweet  days  and  roses,  must 
also  die;  and  the  good,  thoroughly  changed  man  of 
Christ! 

"Only  a  sweet  and  virtuous  soul, 

Like  seasoned  timber  never  gives, 
But  tho'   the   whole  world   turns  to   coal, 

Then  chiefly  lives." 


CHRISTIANITY  A  CATHOLIC  RELIGION 

The  Church  which  is  his  body,  the  fulness  of  him  that  filleth 
all  in  all.— Eph.  1  :  22,  23. 

The  purpose  so  long  kept  secret  and  now  revealed,  is  to  gather 
together  all  nations  and  classes  of  men  into  the  one  Church  of 


180          THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

God,  one  organized  body,  one  brotherhood  in  which  all  men  are 
to  find  their  salvation,  and  through  which  is  to  be  realized  an 
even  wider  purpose  for  the  whole  universe.  In  this  doctrine  of 
the  catholic  church  St.  Paul  finds  the  expression  of  all  the  length 
and  breadth  and  height  and  depth  of  the  divine  love. — Gore. 

The  presence  of  our  Lord  in  this  Dispensation  is  a  presence  in 
the  Person  of  His  Vicar.  The  title  "Vicar  of  our  Lord,"  aa 
applied  to  the  Holy  Ghost,  we  draw,  indeed,  from  Tertullian, 
but  it  is  justified  by  Christ's  own  words  on  the  night  of  His 
betrayal,  "the  Holy  Ghost  whom  the  Father  will  send  in  my 
name.  If  I  depart  I  will  send  him  unto  you."  The  presence 
and  indwelling  of  the  Spirit  in  the  Church  constantly  brings 
about  the  presence  and  indwelling  of  Christ.  *  *  *  It  is 
thus  that  our  Lord  inhabits  the  Church  in  the  fulness  of  His 
mediatorial  power. — Downer. 

Roman  Catholics  hold  many  doctrines  which  I  believe  to  be 
true  and  catholic;  but  what  is  meant  by  Roman  Catholicism  ia 
that  part  of  the  belief  of  Roman  Catholics  which  is  not  catholic 
and  is  not  true. — Salmon. 

If  we  have  rightly  interpreted  our  Saviour's  words  in  regard 
to  the  relation  between  the  inward  and  spiritual  kingdom  of 
Christ  and  the  visible  Church  of  Christ  as  its  nurse  and  home, 
then  the  personal  reign  of  Christ  in  which  His  Kingdom  consists, 
will  from  His  resurrection  and  exaltation  to  the  Father  be  realized 
in  the  guidance  of  His  followers,  collectively,  and  individually, 
by  the  Holy  Spirit.  In  the  Church  of  New  Testament  times 
this  is  abundantly  verified  in  both  respects. — Robertson. 

The  Creed  represents  the  Catholic  judgment. — Gore. 

The  name  Catholic  as  used  of  the  Body  of  Christ 
would  need  to  receive  some  special  attention  in  this 
season,  were  it  only  on  account  of  the  intimate  relation 
which  its  content  has  to  the  Holy  Spirit  and  His  Mis- 
sion. He  was  sent  to  be  the  Guide  and  Friend,  the  Life 
and  Soul  of  the  Church.  It  is  the  Church  of  a  universal 
Saviour,  and  is  "His  body,  the  fulness  of  him  that 


CHRISTIANITY  A  CATHOLIC  RELIGION         181 

filleth  all  in  all."  The  God  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
the  Father  of  glory,  has  "put  all  things  under  his  feet," 
given  "him  to  be  the  head  over  all  things"  to  this 
Church.  It  can  only  be  a  universal  Church,  and  the 
Spirit  is  its  indwelling  life  and  power. 

"Catholic"  stands  for  these  things  of  Christ.  It 
does  not  appear  on  the  pages  of  the  New  Testament, 
but  language  like  the  above  from  Ephesians,  convey- 
ing the  idea  of  universality,  does  appear  on  many  a 
page.  The  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  and  their  inspired 
writings,  are  full  of  the  truth  for  which  the  Greek  word 
stands,  and  the  word  is  adopted  almost  as  soon  as 
the  Spirit  takes  up  the  mighty  work  to  which  He  is 
appoimVJ  of  the  Father. 

It  is  a  noble  term  every  way.  To  say  that  a  painter 
or  sculptor,  a  poet  or  novelist,  is  a  person  of  catholic 
feeling  or  taste,  is  high  praise.  Madame  de  Stael 
was  a  genuine  French  woman,  but  it  has  been  said 
that  her  ear  was  attent  to  catch  each  sound  that  came 
her  way  from  the  great  thinkers  of  her  time  throughout 
Europe.  In  other  words,  she  was  catholic-minded. 
Charles  Lamb  wrote:  "With  these  exceptions  I  can 
read  almost  anything:  I  bless  my  stars  for  a  taste  so 
catholic,  so  unexcluding" ;  and  Lecky  refers  to  "the 
catholic  and  humane  principles  of  Stoicism." 

The  etymological  derivation  and  connections  of  the 
word  are  noble.  It  is  first  cousin  to  whole  and  whole- 
some, to  hale,  heal,  and  holy.  In  the  General  Confes- 
sion we  acknowledge  that  "there  is  no  health  [wholth| 
in  us."  In  Morning  and  Evening  Prayer  we  ask  God 
to  make  known  His  "saving  health  unto  all  nations." 

To  one  trained  in  a  portion  of  the  Church  holding 
"  the  Faith  as  confessed  in  the  purest  ages  and  by  the 


182         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

purest  Churches,  who  opens  the  Scriptures  to  all  her 
children,  and  submits  all  she  does  and  teaches  to  that 
test,"  the  word  Catholic  cannot  but  have  a  rich  sig- 
nificance. If  he  has  stood  under  the  dome  of  the 
baptistery  in  Pisa,  and,  sounding  one  clear  note, 
heard  coming  back  to  him  as  from  a  full  choir  the 
so-called  ''over-tones"  of  it,  he  will  realize  what  I 
mean  by  the  "harmonics"  of  this  word.  It  connotes 
all  the  combined  and  harmonious  elements  of  Christian 
Truth,  and  Worship,  and  Life,  in  the  One  Body  of 
Christ,  as  informed  by  the  Spirit  of  Christ;  not  merely 
the  pattern  of  sound  words,  such  as  St.  Paul  had  give,n 
to  his  son  Timothy  to  hold,  "in  faith  and  love  which 
is  in  Christ  Jesus  " ;  but  the  entire  good  thing  committed 
unto  the  Church  to  guard,  "through  the  Holy  Ghost 
which  dwelleth  in  us."  (2d  Tim.  1  :  13,  14.) 

It  is  a  word  which  by  all  its  historic  Christian  asso- 
ciations pleads  with  us,  as  it  were,  to  reclaim  it  from 
later  associations  that  have  tended  to  lower  it  in  the 
minds  of  a  large  portion  of  Christendom.  Dr.  Water- 
man, in  the  Preface  to  his  volume  on  the  "Post-Apostolic 
Age,"  says: 

"I  have  had  in  mind  (also)  a  certain  Ladies'  Historical  Club 
well  known  to  me,  made  up  of  women,  intelligent  and  studious, 
who 'inform  themselves  with  honest  ambition  and  hard  work  in 
the  history  of  England  and  America,  but  feel  no  shame  that  they 
know  almost  nothing  of  the  history  of  the  Church,  and  that  what 
they  do  know  they  generally  know  wrong.  They  think,  for 
instance,  of  the  Catholic  Church  as  a  corrupt  outgrowth  from 
original  Christianity,  with  a  'Pope'  at  the  head  of  it,  and  of  the 
early  bishops  of  Rome  as  'Popes,'  which  last  is  exactly  as  un- 
historical  as  it  would  be  to  call  Queen  Elizabeth,  Empress  of 
India." 

"Protestants  who  know  nothing  of  theology,"  says  Dr. 
Salmon,  "are  apt  freely  to  concede  the  appellation  'Catholic,' 


CHRISTIANITY  A  CATHOLIC  RELIGION         183 

having  no  other  idea  connected  with  it  than  that  it  is  the  name  of 
a  sect;  bu^  those  who  know  better  feel  that  it  is  a  degradation 
of  a  noble  word  to  limit  it  in  such  a  way.  And  in  truth,  if  it  is 
possible  to  convey  insult  by  a  title,  what  is  really  insulting  is 
that  one  section  of  Christians  should  appropriate  to  themselves 
the  title  '  Catholic '  as  their  exclusive  right,  and  thus  by  implica- 
tion deny  it  to  others." 

He  adds  other  words  equally  plain  and  forcible:  "To  speak 
honestly,  of  all  the  sects  into  which  Christendom  is  divided  none 
appears  to  me  less  entitled  to  the  name  Catholic  than  the  Roman. 
Firmilian  long  ago  thus  addressed  a  former  bishop  of  Rome  (and 
this  great  bishop  Firmilian  must  be  regarded  as  expressing  the 
sentiments,  not  only  of  the  Eastern  Church  of  the  third  century, 
but  also  of  St.  Cyprian,  to  whose  translation,  no  doubt,  we  owe 
our  knowledge  of  his  letter) :  'How  great  is  the  sin  of  which  you 
have  incurred  the  guilt  in  cutting  yourself  off  from  so  many 
flocks!  For,  do  not  deceive  yourself,  it  is  yourself  you  have  cut 
off:  since  he  is  the  real  schismatic  who  makes  himself  an  apostate 
from  the  communion  of  ecclesiastical  unity.  While  you  think 
that  you  can  cut  off  all  from  your  communion,  it  is  yourself  that 
you  cut  off  from  communion  with  all.'  At  the  present  day  the 
bishop  of  Rome  has  broken  communion  with  more  than  half  of 
Christendom,  merely  because  it  will  not  yield  him  an  obedience 
to  which  he  has  no  just  right."  ("Infallibility  of  the  Church," 
pages  VI,  XI.) 

Words  like  these  serve  to  emphasize, — if,  indeed,  it 
requires  emphasizing, — the  great  need  there  is  of  a 
clearer  understanding  on  the  part  of  Prayer  Book  wor- 
shippers, as  to  what  we  mean,  or  ought  to  mean,  saying : 
"  I  believe  in  the  Holy  Catholic  Church,  the  Communion 
of  Saints."  To  shed  further  light  upon  the  subject  I 
venture  to  quote  Canon  Mason,  in  "The  Faith  of  the 
Gospel,"  at  considerable  length. 

"The  reason  why  the  Church  is  called  Catholic  is  frequently 
misconceived.  It  is  supposed  that  the  title  refers  to  her  local 
extension.  So  in  the  Te  Deum  it  is  roughly  rendered  'the  Holy 


184        THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

Church  throughout  all  the  world.'  The  Greek  word  "katholike" 
means  the  Church  whose  character  is  one  of  universality.  The 
fixing  of  the  word  to  its  more  outward  sense  seems  to  be  due  to 
Latin  writers,  not  well  acquainted  with  the  Greek  language,  and 
naturally  prone  to  think  more  of  outward  organization  than  of 
ideal  characteristics.  St.  Cyril  of  Jerusalem  says,  'The  Church 
is  BO  called  in  part  because  it  teaches  universally,  and  with  no 
omissions,  the  entire  body  of  doctrines  which  men  ought  to 
know.'  *  *  *  The  very  reason  why  the  Church  is  thus 
spread  abroad  lies  in  her  intrinsic  character.  It  is  her  nature  to 
penetrate  everywhere  and  to  embrace  all.  Resolutely  refusing 
to  be  cramped  and  petrified  and  stereotyped,  by  reason  of  the  free 
Spirit  which  animates  her,  she  is  capable  of  adapting  herself  to 
all  circumstances.  Our  religion, — no  longer  like  that  of  the  Jews, 
given  under  a  form  suitable  to  one  race  only, — is  equally  at  home 
among  all  nations  and  hi  all  climates,  in  all  times,  under  all 
forms  of  government,  amidst  all  varieties  of  social  and  intellectual 
culture.  In  fact,  like  Christ  Himself,  the  Catholic  Church  is  in 
sympathy  with  everything  that  is  truly  human,  and  cannot 
acquiesce  in  anything  that  is  less  large  than  humanity,  being, 
indeed,  co-extensive  with  the  new  humanity  inaugurated  by 
Christ.  Her  mission  is  to  lay  hold  upon  every  soul, — not  to 
force  it  into  some  narrow  and  uniform  mould,  but  to  train  and 
develop  it  into  showing  forth  those  features  of  the  life  of  Christ 
for  which  it  was  predestined."  ("Faith  of  the  Gospel,"  pages 
230,  231.) 

Five  times  in  the  Services  we  come  upon  expressions 
which  suggest  a  consciousness  of  .the  Church's  catho- 
licity :  "To  rule  and  govern  thy  holy  Church  universal" ; 

2 >  "Who  hast  purchased  to  thyself  an  universal  Church"; 
"to  inspire  continually  the  universal  Church  with 

'.'•'     the  spirit  of  truth,  unity,  and  concord";    "hast  pur- 

£*.   chased  to  thyself  an  universal  Church." 

The  word  "catholic,"  rightly  understood  and 
applied,  carries  us  back  to  an  age  when  the  Church 


CHRISTIANITY  A  CATHOLIC  RELIGION         185 

taught,  not  "cunningly  devised  fables,"  or  mere 
"traditions  of  men,"  but  the  pure  Word  of  God.  It 
recalls  a  time  when  in  answer  to  united  prayer,  the 
Holy  Spirit  as  a  Spirit  of  truth  and  of  unity,  revealed 
the  right  interpretation  of  the  Word  through  the 
consciousness  of  the  Spirit-bearing  Body,  as  whole 
and  undivided,  when,  assembled  in  Councils  truly 
representative,  it  was  still  possible  for  Christ's  people  to 
say:  "It  seemed  good  to  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  to  us." 

A  period  it  was,  when,  as  in  Chalcedon,  in  451,  in 
words  that  carried  spiritual  authority  and  conviction 
with  them  for  the  entire  waiting  and  expectant  body 
of  believers  "throughout  all  the  world,"  a  solemn 
affirmation  could  be  made  like  the  following: 

"We  confess,  with  the  Holy  Fathers,  one  and  the  same  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  and  with  one  accord  we  announce  Him,  perfect 
in  the  Godhead,  perfect  in  the  Manhood,  truly  God,  and  truly 
Man,  the  self -same,  of  a  Reasonable  Soul  and  Body;  co-essential 
with  the  Father  as  touching  the  Godhead,  and  co-essential  with 
us  as  touching  the  Manhood,  in  all  things  like  unto  us,  Sin  only 
excepted;  begotten  of  the  Father  as  touching  the  Godhead  before 
all  ages,  but  in  the  last  days  for  us  and  our  salvation,  the  Self- 
same, born  of  Mary  the  Virgin  Mother  of  God  as  to  manhood. 
One  and  the  same  Christ,  Son,  Lord,  Only-begotten,  recognized 
in  two  Natures  without  confusion,  change,  division  or  separation, 
the  difference  of  Natures  being  by  no  means  removed  by  reason 
of  the  union,  but  on  the  contrary,  the  property  of  each  Nature 
preserved  and  continuing  in  one  Person  and  one  hypostasis; 
not  as  it  were  divided  and  parted  into  two  Persons,  but  one  and 
the  same  Son,  Only-begotten,  God  the  Word,  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
even  as  we  have  been  taught  by  the  Prophets  from  the  beginning 
and  by  Christ  Himself,  and  as  the  Fathers  have  handed 
down  to  us." 

This,  the  most  complete  statement  of  the  belief  of 
the  early  Church  about  the  Person  of  our  Lord,  is 


186         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

substantially  the  same  as  that  contained  in  the  Nicene 
Creed.  It  has  been  the  Faith  of  Christendom  ever 
since.  It  is  of  this  Creed  that  Dr.  Fulton  thus  expressed 
himself  twenty  years  ago, — and  how  much  his  words 
mean  to  us  now,  in  a  day  when  probably  a  greater 
number  of  Christian  people  throughout  the  world 
are  earnestly  desiring  and  praying  for  Church  unity 
than  at  any  other  time  for  a  thousand  years! 

"Those  who  explicitly  hold  the  Apostles'  Creed,  without 
denying  any  part  of  the  Nicene  Creed, — which  is  the  precise  posi- 
tion of  most  Christian  lay-people, — do  implicitly  hold  the  Nicene 
doctrine,  and  to-day,  in  spite  of  all  divisions,  the  Church  of 
Rome,  the  Anglican  Churches,  the  Oriental  Churches,  and  all 
the  greater  Protestant  denominations,  such  as  the  Lutherans, 
the  Presbyterians,  and  the  Methodists,  maintain  the  Nicene 
Creed  itself.  Nay,  more,  even  bodies  of  Christians  who  imagine 
that  their  liberty  would  be  endangered  by  a  formal  admission  of 
written  creeds,  do  in  fact  hold  the  faith  of  universal  Christendom 
as  it  is  summarily  contained  in  the  Apostles'  Creed,  and  they 
hold  it  in  the  very  sense  in  which  it  is  more  precisely  expressed 
in  the  Nicene  Creed.  In  other  words,  notwithstanding  all  exist- 
ing divisions,  universal  Christendom,  virtually  with  one  accord, 
still  maintains  the  Christian  Faith,  as  it  was  set  forth  at  Nicsea, 
Constantinople,  Ephesus  and  Chalcedon. 

"So  far  as  we  are  concerned,"  he  elsewhere  affirms,  "our 
Church  stands  firmly  by  the  Church  of  the  first  centuries.  Her 
Christianity  is  the  Christianity  of  Chalcedon,  not  one  jot  less,  and 
not  a  single  jot  more."  And  again  he  writes:  "Christianity 
haa  never  been  improved  by  adding  to  the  Faith  as  thus  defined. 
Every  unauthorized  definition  has  served  only  to  expose  it  to 
new  forms  of  assault.  In  the  present  times  there  is  good  need 
that  the  Christian  faith  should  be  discriminated  from  unauthor- 
ized additions." 

It  is  the  Prayer  Book,  and  the  testimony  of  the 
Spirit  in  it,  with  which  we  are  concerned  here.  Its 
catholic  character  is  revealed  by  the  breadth,  the 


CHRISTIANITY  A  CATHOLIC  RELIGION         187 

comparative  simplicity,  and  the  fulness  with  which 
the  spiritual  needs  of  men  are  met  by  "the  chief 
elements  of  the  Gospel,"  as  Dr.  Mason  terms  them. 
There  is  no  turning  aside  from  the  declaration  of  these 
chief  elements,  the  divine  Fatherhood,  the  whole 
Truth  of  the  Chalcedonian  definition  as  regards  the 
One  Christ,  the  fallen  condition  of  man,  and  the  rich 
gift  of  the  Spirit.  It  is  not  one  jot  less.  In  more  than 
one  place,  and  notably  in  the  Te  Deum, — as  old  as  the 
Nicene  Creed, — in  the  words,  "  Thou  didst  humble  thy- 
self to  be  born  of  a  Virgin,"  there  is  plain  witness  to 
the  truth  told  in  the  first  chapter  of  St.  Luke.  It  is 
not  a  single  jot  more.  Like  the  Bible,  it  is  not 
"theological."  Theology  has  been  justly  called  the 
Queen  of  Sciences;  yet  nothing  of  the  structure 
theologians  have  erected, — gold,  silver,  precious 
stones,  or  wood,  hay  and  stubble, — strictly  speaking, 
has  become  part  of  these  sacred  Offices  of  Praise  and 
Prayer. 

"Other  foundation  can  no  man  lay,"  than  the  one 
broad  foundation-stone  laid  in  the  New  Testament 
and  in  the  catholic  Creeds,  even  Jesus  Christ.  Men 
ask  in  our  day  for  a  broad  Christianity.  We  cannot 
have  a  broad  Christianity,  except  it  be  like  the  broad 
ocean,  also  deep.  Men  say  the  "Fatherhood  of  God  and 
the  Brotherhood  of  Man, — these  are  the  great  things." 
They  are,  indeed,  two  mighty  factors  of  the  one  true 
religion,  two  catholic  verities.  But  the  fruition  of 
God's  Fatherhood,  and  the  actual  realization  of  human 
brotherhood,  will  come  only  through  the  life  and  work 
of  that  One  Christ,  Son  and  Lord,  who  is  co-essential 
with  the  Father  as  touching  the  Godhood,  and  co- 
essential  with  us  as  touching  Manhood. 


188        THE  TRINITY  SEASON — CCONTINUED) 

It  is  in  sharing  that  same  Humanity  of  the  very 
Son  of  God,  that  the  Church  can  be  a  universal  Church, 
"in  sympathy  with  everything  that  is  human,"  can 
with  the  Spirit's  aid  transform  and  uplift  the  world. 
Everything  human  belongs  to  the  Church,  all  science 
and  knowledge,  all  art  and  literature,  whatsoever  things 
in  our  present  life  "are  lovely  and  of  good  report," 
on  account  of,  and  through  living  union  with,  the  pure 
humanity  of  the  Christ  of  God.  Because  of  His 
glorified  Manhood  in  heaven,  the  place  which  He  is 
there  preparing  for  us  will  be  a  place  suited  to  a  glorified 
human  society  such  as  eye  hath  not  seen,  and  no  heart 
of  poet  or  prophet  hath  conceived. 

The  things  to  be  believed  in  order  to  be  a  Christian, 
are  not,  as  many  people  in  our  day  are  apt  to  think, 
many,  but  few.  So  it  was  in  the  day  when  the  eunuch 
asked,  "What  doth  hinder  me  to  be  baptized?"  and 
received  the  answer,  "If  thou  belie  vest  with  all  thine 
heart,  thou  mayest;"  in  fact,  all  ancient  manuscripts 
do  not  contain  these  words,  nor  the  following:  "I 
believe  that  Jesus  is  the  Son  of  God."  It  would 
appear  that  all  which  was  requisite  was  a  desire  to  be 
baptized  in  the  triune  Name. 

None  other  than  a  simple  Faith  would  have  been 
adapted  to  a  Church  intended  for  all  men,  in  all  ages, 
and  in  all  lands;  and  we  are  fully  prepared  to  believe 
the  record  of  the  early  writers,  that  the  Nicene  fathers 
were  reluctant  to  express  the  truth  of  the  Apostles' 
Creed  in  a  more  precise  dogmatic  form,  and  that  no 
single  phrase  or  word  was  added,  which  was  not  found 
necessary  to  give  distinct  denial  to  some  more  or  less 
subtle  and  dangerous  heresy.  The  Church's  mission 


CHRISTIANITY  A  CATHOLIC  RELIGION         189 

was,  as  Canon  Mason  said,  "to  lay  hold  upon  every 
soul."  It  was  a  Church  for  all  sorts  and  conditions 
of  men,  and  any  other  than  a  brief,  scriptural  statement 
of  the  common  belief  would  have  been  judged  a  serious, 
if  not  fatal,  mistake.  It  was  a  Church  for  children, — 
represented  Him  who  had  taken  the  children  in  His  arms 
and  said,  "of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven."  It  was 
long  ago  said  that  "the  Bible  is  a  stream  in  which  the 
lamb  can  wade  and  the  elephant  can  swim,"  and  it  was 
evidently  the  Spirit's  and  the  Church's  will,  that  the 
same  should  be  true  of  the  Creed  as  a  term  of  com- 
munion for  the  Lord's  people  throughout  all  the  world. 

Is  it  not  Christ's  and  the  Spirit's  will  to-day?  Too 
great  weight  can  scarcely  be  given  to  the  Lord's  indig- 
nation at  the  Pharisees,  and  all  influenced  by  pharisaic 
teaching,  to  hinder  the  children,  or  such  as  were  chil- 
dren mentally,  from  coming  unto  Him.  Wise  or 
simple,  children  or  adults,  we  are  all,  He  taught,  to 
enter  through  the  children's  door.  When  He  said, 
"Whoso  shall  receive  one  such  little  child  in  my  name, 
receiveth  me,"  and  then  added,  "Whoso  shall  offend 
one  of  these  little  ones  which  believe  in  me,  it  were  better 
for  him  that  a  millstone  were  hanged  about  his  neck, 
and  that  he  were  drowned  in  the  depth  of  the  sea," 
it  would  appear  that  He  must  have  turned  from  the 
child  He  had  set  in  the  midst  of  them,  to  point  toward 
those  common  people  who  "heard  him  gladly,"  and 
whom  the  Pharisees  despised. 

Were  the  Chalcedonian  Fathers  thinking  of  this, — 
thinking  of  the  sin  of  offending  God's  little  ones  of  every 
age  and  class  throughout  the  world, — thinking  of  the 
mighty  angels  who  alike  watch  over  little  children  and 
all  who  are  children  in  understanding  and  in  faith, — 


190         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

thinking  that  to  offend  these  is  to  offend  Christ,  and 
"grieve"  the  Spirit  who  stands  in  such  relation  to  these 
same  little  ones  in  the  Church, — when  they  put  forth, 
in  substance,  the  following? 

"  It  is  declared  to  be  a  high  crime  and  misdemeanor,  punishable 
with  deposition  and  excommunication,  to  demand  of  any  man,  as 
a  condition  of  Christian  Communion,  that  he  should  receive  or 
believe  anything  not  contained  in  the  Symbol  of  the  Faith." 

Precisely  this  crime  and  misdemeanor  it  is,  of  which 
many  Christian  communions  have  been  guilty,  and 
the  Roman  Communion  possibly  most  of  all.  The 
tendency  to  require  belief  in  points  unnecessary,  if 
not  actually  contrary  to  the  letter  or  spirit  of  divine 
revelation,  is  as  old  as  it  is  hurtful  to  souls.  The 
Pharisees  hedged  the  law  with  rules  of  their  own 
invention,  partly  in  order,  if  possible,  to  ensure  the 
keeping  of  it,  partly  also  in  order  to  magnify  their 
own  office  as  theological  teachers  and  rulers  of  the 
people.  Out  of  this  mistaken  idea,  and  motive  of 
self-exaltation,  grew  the  perversion  of  the  Roman 
Mass  as  being  a  sacrifice  of  the  "Victim,"  Christ, 
actually  offered  ever  anew  by  the  priest,  and  the 
system  of  Confession  and  Absolution  as  taught  and 
practiced  in  the  Middle  Ages.  The  invasions  of 
barbarians,  warlike  and  rude,  and  unquestionably 
dangerous  to  Christianity,  of  course  presented  a 
temptation  to  adopt  these  unscriptural  and  uncatholic 
methods. 

The  methods,  and  the  principle  underlying  them, 
have  lived  on.  One  may  read  to-day  in  the  "Catho- 
lic's Pocket  Manual,"  these  words  of  introduction  to 
the  Holy  Rosary,  with  its  Indulgences  and  Plenary 


CHRISTIANITY  A  CATHOLIC  RELIGION         191 

Indulgences,  and   remarks  on  the    requisite  priestly 
blessing  of  the  rosaries: 

"In  its  present  form  it  was  instituted  by  St.  Dominic,  the 
founder  of  the  Order  of  Friars  Preachers,  in  order  to  stem  the 
flood  of  the  Albigensian  heresy,  then  spreading  far  and  wide 
throughout  Europe.  He  framed  this  admirable  form  of  prayer 
in  obedience  to  a  revelation  received  from  the  blessed  Virgin,  to 
whom  he  had  recourse  for  this  purpose  about  the  year  1206, 
and  to  him  is  due  the  spread  of  a  devotion  which  for  many 
centuries  has  produced  the  most  marvellous  results  in  the 
Christian  world." 

The  period  of  Church  history  here  mentioned  was 
one  prolific  in  expedients  of  a  like  sort,  without  the 
slightest  foundation  in  the  Word  of  God,  or  in  the 
teaching  and  practice  of  the  early  Church,  and  among 
their  "marvellous  results"  have  been  the  great  reaction 
against  Roman  authority  and  teaching  in  the  six- 
teenth century,  and  the  yet  more  formidable  losses 
which  Rome  has  suffered  in  these  later  times  in  Italy, 
France,  Spain,  South  Germany,  England,  and  America. 
These  losses,  as  given  in  recent,  carefully  compiled 
statements,  are  enormous.  The  Rev.  Pearcy  Dearmer, 
in  his  little  book  entitled  "Re-union  and  Rome," 
says: 

"Far  more  people  left  the  Roman  Communion  in  the  nine- 
teenth century  than  in  the  sixteenth.  *  *  *  It  seems  not 
too  much  to  say  that  Roman  Catholic  countries  are  disappearing 
from  the  map  of  the  world.  If  the  above  estimate  be  at  all 
correct,  and  the  present  rate  of  shrinkage  be  maintained,  the  whole 
Roman  Church  will  have  disappeared  in  less  than  two  centuries." 

In  a  most  true  sense  this  prospect  is  awful  to  con- 
template. For  while,  as  protestant  and  true  Catho- 
lics, we  cannot  go  the  full  length  with  Pius  X,  speaking 


192         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

in  his  first  Encyclical  of  the  present  "most  afflicted 
condition  of  mankind,"  which  "did  exceedingly 
affright  us,"  and  which  "may  be,  as  it  were,  a  fore- 
taste and  a  beginning  of  the  evils  that  are  to  be  looked 
for  in  the  last  days,"  we  have  reason  to  regard  this 
condition  as  indeed  terrible.  Mr.  Dearmer  affirms 
that  this  tremendous  defection  from  Rome  means 
abandonment  of  religion  altogether.  These  millions 
who  have  left  or  are  leaving  Rome,  that  is,  repudiating 
the  claim  of  the  Papacy,  "having  been  brought  up  to 
believe  that  the  choice  is  'Rome  or  nothing,'  and  that 
there  is  no  real  Christianity  except  that  of  Rome,  have 
largely  revolted  against  Christianity  altogether." 

But  our  concern  here  is  not  with  the  uncatholic 
nature  of  the  Papacy  itself  and  large  portions  of  the 
Roman  teachings  and  services  in  particular;  nor  with 
the  present  fearful  reaction  against  them,  and  against 
the  Christian  religion  in  consequence  of  them.  It  is 
rather  with  the  general  tendency  to  add  as  conditions 
of  communion  things  "not  contained  in  the  symbol 
of  the  Faith"  in  the  Church's  early  days.  "How  is 
it,  brethren?"  wrote  St.  Paul  to  the  Corinthians, 
"when  ye  come  together,  every  one  of  you  hath  a 
psalm,  hath  a  doctrine,  hath  a  tongue,  hath  a  revela- 
tion, hath  an  interpretation.  Let  all  things  be  done 
unto  edifying." 

The  Church  in  her  Prayer  Book  approaches  us  as 
sinners,  who  need  to  receive  the  new  heart,  and  be 
reconciled  to  God  in  Christ,  bids  us  read:  "Behold,  I 
was  shapen  in  wickedness,  and  in  sin  hath  my  mother 
conceived  me;"  bids  us  pray:  " Make  me  a  clean  heart, 
O  God,  and  renew  a  right  spirit  within  me."  On  the 


193 

other  hand,  she  presents  for  our  acceptance, — ought 
we  not  to  say,  the  Spirit  presents? — no  carefully 
defined  doctrine  of  depravity,  and  n^o  theory  of  the 
correct  method  of  conversion  to  God.  Reading  our 
Lord's  story  of  the  Rich  Man  and  Lazarus,  and  of  the 
Great  Gulf  Fixed,  and  more  than  one  of  His  solemn 
warnings  concerning  a  Judgment  to  come,  she  calls 
upon  us  to  subscribe  to  no  formulated  teaching  in 
regard  to  eternal  punishment,  as  a  condition  of  com- 
munion. She  reads  the  Ten  Commandments  in  our 
ears,  also  long  passages  from  the  Old  Testament  Law, — 
"the  schoolmaster  to  bring  us  unto  Christ," — but  with 
these  passages  many  others  exhibiting  OUT  freedom 
in  Christ.  Love  it  is  which  fulfils  the  law.  It  is  "a 
royal  law,  a  law  of  liberty."  Rightly  speaking,  the 
law  is  "not  made  for  a  righteous  man,"  but  rather  for 
liars  and  murderers,  and  the  like  (1st  Tim.  1:9).  Re- 
freshing is  the  Gospel  reminder,  midway  in  Lent,  that 
in  Christ  we  are  not  "children  of  the  bond- woman, 
but  of  the  free." 

The  historic  Church  reads  to  her  children  how  God 
predestinated  those  whom  He  had  foreknown,  to  be 
conformed  to  the  image  of  His  Son,  and  all  things 
work  together  for  their  good;  has  predestinated  us 
unto  the  adoption  of  children  by  Jesus  Christ  unto 
Himself,  and  would  have  us  believe  it  with  grateful 
hearts;  but  no  doctrine  of  election,  Augustinian  or 
any  other,  is  to  be  found  in  her  Prayer  Book.  This 
Augustinian  teaching  it  is  of  which  Dr.  Fulton  writes: 

"  If  you  ask  some  of  the  most  virulent  enemies  of  Christianity 
what  makes  their  hatred  so  embittered,  I  believe  you  will  find 
that  it  is  this  and  another  doctrine  of  a  similar  sort  which  have 
made  Christianity  not  only  incredible  to  their  intellect,  but  repul- 

13 


194         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

sive  to  their  sense  of  justice.  It  is  then  something  of  a  relief  to 
be  assured  that  neither  the  Augustinian  nor  the  modern  doctrine 
of  predestination  is  any  part  of  Christianity"  (Chalcedonian 
Decree,  page  109). 

The  Prayer  Book  contains  no  formulated  statement 
regarding  the  Trinity.  It  simply  bids  us  sing  what 
Christians  have  sung  for  fifteen  centuries,  how  the 
holy  Church  throughout  all  the  world  doth  acknowl- 
edge the  Father  of  an  infinite  Majesty,  His  adorable 
true  and  only  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Comforter. 

It  moves  us  to  sing  how  the  King  of  Glory,  Christ, 
the  everlasting  Son  of  the  Father,  when  He  took  upon 
Him  to  deliver  man,  humbled  Himself  to  be  born  of  a 
Virgin,  and,  having  overcome  the  sharpness  of  death, 
did  open  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  to  all  believers; 
calls  upon  us  in  the  Eucharistic  Service  to  give  thanks 
to  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost  "for  the  redemption 
of  the  world  by  the  death  and  passion  of  our  Saviour 
Christ,  both  God  and  man;"  contains  passages  from 
the  Gospels  and  Epistles  which  exhibit  our  Lord  mak- 
ing that  which  in  the  Consecration  it  terms  "a  full, 
perfect,  and  sufficient  sacrifice,  oblation,  and  satisfac- 
tion for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world;"  and  yet  presents 
to  us  no  theory  of  the  Atonement  whatever.  Inviting 
us  to 

"Draw  nigh  and  take  the  Body  of  the  Lord, 
And  drink  the  holy  Blood  for  us  out-poured," 

and  invoking  the  Holy  Spirit  upon  God's  gifts  and 
creatures  of  bread  and  wine,  that  "we  may  be  par- 
takers of  Christ's  most  blessed  Body  and  Blood/' 
the  Church  offers  no  definite  statement  concerning 
the  manner  of  His  sacred  Presence,  to  be  apprehended 


CHRISTIANITY  A  CATHOLIC  RELIGION         195 

and  received  as  a  condition  of  entrance  to  ''the  ban- 
quet of  that  most  heavenly  food." 

The  Table  of  Lessons  in  the  Prayer  Book,  together 
with  the  Gospels  and  Epistles  incorporated  in  the 
Eucharistic  Services,  provides  that  church-going  people 
shall  be  richly  nourished  with  the  divine  Word;  it  is 
read  in  our  ears  that  the  Holy  Scriptures  are  "  able  to 
make  men  wise  unto  salvation,"  that  "every  scripture 
given  by  inspiration  of  God  is  profitable  for  doctrine, 
for  reproof,  for  correction,  for  instruction  in  righteous- 
ness, that  the  man  of  God  may  be  perfect,  throughly 
furnished  unto  all  good  works";  and  that  "holy  men 
spake  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost";  yet 
no  definition  of  the  nature  of  that  inspiration  is  offered 
for  our  acceptance.  According  to  Dr.  Fulton,  none 
was  put  forth  in  the  Church  of  the  Nicene  Age,  and 
his  conclusion  is  that  "no  theory  on  the  subject  either 
is  or  ought  to  be  any  part  of  Christianity;  and  that 
objections  to  Christianity  which  are  founded,  explicitly 
or  implicitly,  on  any  such  theory,  are  utterly  irrele- 
vant" (page  101). 

As  regards  the  scientific  theory  of  evolution  which 
by  many  is  supposed  to  be  irreconcilable  with  the 
Christian  Faith,  and  which  has  had  a  disturbing  effect 
on  not  a  few  Christian  minds,  Dr.  Fulton  makes 
the  following  remark:  "A  conflict  between  science  and 
sectarianism  is  always  possible;  a  conflict  between 
science  and  genuine  Catholic  Christianity  is  not  pos- 
sible, because  the  Nicene  Creed  makes  no  affirmation 
of  any  kind,  with  which  any  discovery  of  physical 
science  has  been,  or  ever  can  be  inconsistent"  (page  91). 

It  is  after  discussing  at  length  the  various  doctrines 
added  to  the  ancient  Faith  of  Christendom,  and  the 


196         THE  TRINITY  SEASON— (CONTINUED) 

difficulties,  real  or  imaginary,  created  by  them,  that 
the  same  learned  writer  thus  concludes: 

"I  know  not  how  the  thoughts  which  I  have  put  before  you 
may  strike  your  minds;  but  to  not  a  few  troubled  minds  in  these 
times  it  may  come  almost  as  a  light  from  heaven,  dispelling 
many  a  gloomy  shade  of  doubt  and  difficulty,  to  learn  that  no 
past,  present  or  possible  discovery,  whether  of  science  or  criticism, 
can  cast  one  particle  of  doubt  upon  the  Christian  Faith  as  that 
Faith  has  been  set  forth  by  the  only  competent  authority,  that 
is,  by  the  voice  of  Universal  Christendom.  *  *  *  May  I 
not  ask  you  to  admit  that  the  Chalcedonian  Decree,  so  far  as  we 
have  yet  considered  it,  was  no  tyrannical  encroachment  on  the 
lawful  freedom  of  the  individual  Christian,  but  stands  vindicated 
in  this  nineteenth  century  as  a  truly  constitutional  and  catholic 
law  of  light  and  liberty?"  (page  101). 

Bishop  Webb,  in  a  sermon  on  the  Anglican  Principle 
essentially  Historical,  writes: 

"In  this  great  principle  of  Historical  Continuity  in  the  Faith 
we  find  that  we  have  a  great  principle  of  rest.  In  these  days 
there  is  a  general  feeling  of  restlessness;  *  *  *  *  Wherever 
you  have  looked  during  these  last  two  or  three  years, — to  America, 
to  Africa,  to  India,  to  the  Continent  of  Europe,  to  our  own  islands, 
— everywhere  you  observe  a  general  restlessness."  He  points 
to  the  principle  of  our  Church  wherein  we  have  a  Faith  once 
delivered  to  the  saints — which  we  heartily  believe,  to  which  we 
testify,  and  which  we  are  sure  our  children  will  live  and  die  for 
and,  please  God,  "keep"  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit  until 
Christ  comes  again.  "Here,"  he  says,  "is  a  principle  of  restful- 
ness  for  the  human  mind ;  it  gives  us  the  motto '  Semper  eadem,' — 
'always  the  same,' — like  the  unchanging  Christ,  who  is  the  same 
yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever.*' 

But  this  unchanging  Christ,  the  Bishop  goes  on  to  say,  "is  not 
a  rigid  and  immovable  Christ,  but  a  Christ  who  "has  sympathy 
with  the  spirit  of  the  age,  and  can  speak  to  the  nineteenth  century 
in  tones  that  will  reach  its  heart,  a  living  Christ  and  the  great 
Centre  from  which  the  living  Body  moves." 


CHRISTIANITY  A  CATHOLIC  RELIGION         197 

As  living  and  moving  in  the  Universal  Spirit,  pro- 
fessing a  simple,  personal,  and  yet  corporate,  Faith 
in  a  divine-human  Lord,  the  Church  of  the  ages  con- 
tains a  principle  of  adaptation  and  of  liberty,  of  breadth 
and  comprehensiveness.  In  it  is  the  rest  of  life,  not  of 
stagnation.  It  has  a  genuine  missionary  power.  It 
has  a  message  for  the  world. 

It  may  be  worth  our  while  to  look  a  little  deeper, 
and  ask  why  the  millions  are  restless,  and  why  the 
historic  Faith  offers  a  cure.  I  believe  the  answer  lies, 
in  great  part,  in  the  fact  that  its  simplicity  is  that  of 
pure  dogma;  in  other  words,  of  divine  revelation,  and 
not  of  mere  human  doctrine.  Received  through  men, 
indeed,  it  is  ultimately  of  God;  and  because  of  God, 
therefore  instinct  with  His  life  and  power.  Rightly 
understood,  there  is  no  philosophy,  no  science,  and  no 
true  art  without  dogma;  that  is  to  say,  without  certain 
demonstrated  or  generally  approved  principles  at  the 
foundation  of  it. 

This  fact  ought  to  be  more  generally  recognized  than 
it  is;  especially  as  bearing  on  religion.  A  religion 
without  dogma  is  no  religion.  Certain  it  is  that  such 
a  religion  will  have  no  power  to  compel  the  human  will, 
and  to  influence  conduct.  To  have  acknowledged  a 
truth  or  a  principle  of  belief  and  action,  and  then  lost 
it,  will  always  mean,  for  a  being  endowed  as  man  is 
endowed,  a  serious  loss  in  motive  power.  To  come 
directly  to  my  point,  it  must  create  the  restlessness 
with  which  Bishop  Webb  declares  that  multitudes  in  our 
day  are  affected.  And  must  it  not  be  confessed  that 
this  absence  of  "will  to  believe"  is  largely  owing  to 
the  abuse  of  man's  power  to  believe,  on  the  part  of 
great  sections  of  the  Christian  Church  itself?  Man- 


198         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

made  creeds,  traditions  of  men,  cunningly  devised 
fables,  even  sincerely  and  earnestly  thought-out  doc- 
trines, added  to  the  Faith  once  for  all  delivered  to  the 
saints  to  keep  by  the  power  of  the  Spirit, — these  all 
have  the  effect  to  weaken  the  very  faculty  to  believe 
at  all. 

We  need  to  reflect  more  carefully,  and  with  keener 
sympathy,  upon  this  prevailing  condition  of  soul- 
impotence.  Shakespear  in  the  character  of  Hamlet; 
Turgenieff,  in  his  analysis  of  Rudin;  and  Sienkiewicz, 
in  the  hero  of  his  story,  "Without  Dogma,"  throw  a 
strong  side-light  upon  the  condition, — part  mental, 
part  spiritual, — which  I  am  endeavoring  to  charac- 
terize. Whereas  ''the  will  is  the  man,"  in  all  these 
three  characters  we  find  presented  a  case  where  reason 
overbalances  the  will.  We  have,  as  Professor  William 
L.  Phelps  has  said,  "a  melancholy,  but  fascinating, 
and  highly  instructive,  spectacle  of  futile  impulses, 
vain  longings,  and  idle  day-dreams."  In  the  third 
instance,  "  Without  Dogma,"  the  very  title  reveals 
the  lack  of  conviction  that  ultimately  destroys  the 
hero.  He  has  absolutely  "no  driving  power";  as  he 
expresses  it,  he  does  not  know. 

The  particular  study  here  is,  no  doubt,  that  of  a 
sort  of  mind  extremely  common  among  the  upper 
classes  of  Poles  and  Russians.  But  is  not  the  disease 
more  widely  spread  than  that?  In  our  present-day 
magazine  and  other  literature,  and  in  the  religious 
attitude  even  of  many  who  at  times  present  themselves 
before  God,  do  we  not  discover  signs  of  a  lack  of  con- 
viction, and  of  power  to  "bring  things  to  pass"  for 
God?  It  is  not  that  we  ought  to  be  and  desire  others 
to  be,  "dogmatic,"  in  the  common,  disagreeable,  sense 


CHRISTIANITY  A  CATHOLIC  RELIGION         199 

of  the  term;  and  from  this  secondary  and  lower  mean- 
ing attached  too  naturally,  alas,  to  some  words  of  high 
lineage  and  noble  significance, — enthusiast,  bigot,  fa- 
natic even, — every  man  of  deep  convictions  and  earnest 
purposes  has  reason  to  pray  to  be  delivered.  All 
these  words  conveyed  originally  the  thought  of  a  zeal 
fervent  and  sincere,  being  the  result  of  divinely  revealed 
truth.  Having  this  higher  meaning  of  our  word  in 
view,  and  believing  that  none  can  be  well-established, 
ardent,  and  active  Christians  without  dogma,  my 
contention  is,  that  the  present  neurasthenic,  if  not 
invertebrate,  state  of  multitudes  around  us  is  largely 
due  to  the  reaction  against  unauthorized,  sometimes 
audacious,  additions  to  the  Church's  Faith.  It  is  not 
merely  that  corrupt  and  overloaded  systems  of  belief 
have  broken  down  and  lost  their  power  to  influence  the 
will  and  conduct,  but  that  the  will  to  believe  and  to  act 
has  itself  been  impaired,  and  we  behold  entire  commun- 
ities, if  not  entire  races,  affected  with  this  loss  of  power. 
Professor  Barrett  Wendell  tells  us  that  Dr.  Holmes' 
poem  of  the  wonderful  "One-hoss  Shay"  was  composed 
as  a  sly  satire  upon  the  collapse  of  New  England 
orthodoxy;  and  from  the  fact  that  it  was  built  by  the 
Deacon  and  used  by  the  Parson,  built  in  "such  a 
logical  way,"  broke  down  "close  by  the  meetV  house 
on  the  hill,"  and  "at  half-past  nine  by  the  meet'n' 
house  clock,"  it  is  easy  to  believe  him.  It  is  easy  to 
believe,  too,  that  the  underlying  thought  was  a  serious 
and  sympathetic  one.  Like  many  another  humorist, 
Dr.  Holmes  possessed  a  large  vein  of  thoughtful  sym- 
pathy, and  in  none  of  his  published  letters  is  this  more 
conspicuous  than  in  his  replies  to  friends  who  have 
brought  to  him  their  religious  doubts  and  perplexities. 


200         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

My  own  thought, — as  will  already  be  apparent, — 
is  that  precisely  as  the  parson  had  received  a  shock 
almost  as  overwhelming  as  that  of  the  poor  old  chaise, 
lying  "in  a  heap  or  mound,"  so  the  hearts  of  men, 
individually  and,  in  large  bodies,  receive  a  terrible, 
often  permanently  paralyzing,  disturbance,  when 
religious  systems  go  to  pieces,  in  which  they  have 
trusted  as  though  they  were  nothing  less,  and  nothing 
more,  than  Christianity  itself.  They  get  up  and  stare 
around,  not  for  a  half  hour,  but  for  the  remainder  of 
their  lives.  Their  children  inherit  alike  their  problem 
and  their  anemic  condition.  A  long  while  staring 
around,  and  inquiring,  "What  then  is  Christianity?" 
they  become,  some  of  them  restless  in  mind  and  spirit, 
and  very  many  more,  alas,  indifferent,  joining,  for  the 
rest  of  their  days,  the  great  company  which  the  Psalm- 
ist represents  asking,  "Who  will  show  us  any  good?" 

Such  deep  and  lasting  soul-injury  do  those  uncatholic 
structures  of  religious  thought  and  doctrine  work,  which 
either  on  the  one  hand,  as  in  the  night,  take  away  our 
Lord  out  of  faith's  sight;  or,  on  the  other  hand,  so  to 
say,  bury  Him  again  under  the  theological  inventions  of 
centuries. 

Whether  Roman  inventions  or  Protestant,  their 
effect  is  of  the  same  kind.  The  reader  has  foreseen 
my  conclusion,  that  a  Church  inheriting,  through  the 
Spirit,  the  simple  catholic  faith  of  the  early  days, 
cannot  do  otherwise  than  protest  against  the  one  and 
the  other.  True  it  is  that  some  non-episcopal  Churches 
have  "in  many  ways  a  special  affinity  with  our  own 
Communion."  Together  with  us  they  protest  against 
the  exclusive  claims  and  the  erroneous  teachings  and 
practices  of  the  mother  of  all  the  sects  of  the  West, 


CHRISTIANITY  A  CATHOLIC  RELIGION         201 

Rome.  Great  numbers  of  our  own  people,  bishops, 
priests,  and  laymen,  have  come  out  of  these  non- 
episcopal  bodies;  and  have  not  ceased  to  love  and  care 
for  them.  They  know  how  considerable  a  measure 
of  catholic  and  evangelical  truth  those  communions 
"stand  for,"  and  that  a  mighty  missionary  force  is  in 
them,  as  a  whole.  Speaking  for  myself  and  for  others, 
I  would  say,  that  we  cannot  entirely  accept  the  poet's 
implication,  from  the  Unitarian  point  of  view, — if 
indeed  he  meant  it  so, — that  "Orthodoxy"  is  now  like 

"The  poor  old  chaise,  in  a  heap  or  mound, 
As  if  it  had  been  to  the  mill  and  ground." 

We  look  back  thankfully  to  "the  rock"  whence  we 
were  hewn,  and  to  "the  hole  of  the  pit"  whence  we 
were  digged,  conscious  that  much  of  the  good  which 
it  may  be  is  in  us, — granite  or  marble,  silver  or  gold, 
from  Puritan  quarries  or  Quaker  mines,  is  of  the  Spirit 
of  God.  A  goodly  part  of  Dr.  Smyth's  plea,  in  "Passing 
Protestantism  and  Coming  Catholicism,"  we  accept. 
Protestantism  is  not  entirely  responsible  for  its  own 
existence  and  for  the  present  condition  of  disunion. 
It  has  achieved  "splendid  successes."  It  has  its 
"triumphal  arch."  Of  late  years  it  has  been  "break- 
ing up,  rather  than  making  Creeds." 

We  are  gratefully  appreciative  of  certain  expressions 
in  the  Report  of  the  Special  Committee  of  the  Lam- 
beth Conference  on  Reunion  and  Intercommunion, 
concerning  Presbyterian  and  other  Non-Episcopal 
Churches. 

"To  many  Presbyterians,"  the  Bishops  say,  "we  owe  a  deep 
debt  of  gratitude  for  their  contributions  to  sacred  learning.  We 
are  equally  indebted  to  them  for  many  examples  of  holiness  of 


202         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

life.  With  regard  to  their  Churches,  although  their  character- 
istics vary  in  different  countries,  they  have  in  many  ways  a 
special  affinity  for  our  own  Communion.  Wherever  they  have 
held  closely  to  their  traditions  and  professed  standards  of  faith 
and  government,  as  formulated  at  Westminster,  they  satisfy 
the  first  three  of  the  four  conditions  of  an  approach  to  reunion 
laid  down  by  the  Lambeth  Conference  of  1888.  Even  as  regards 
the  fourth,  though  they  have  not  retained  "the  historic  episco- 
pate," it  belongs  to  their  principles  to  insist  upon  definite  ordina- 
tion as  necessary  for  admission  into  their  ministry.  *  *  * 
Many  leading  Presbyterian  divines  maintain  the  transmission  of 
Orders  by  a  regular  succession  through  the  presbyterate." 

It  will  be  through  the  wider  "triumphal  arch"  of 
the  Faith  as  broadly  presented  in  the  historic  Creeds 
and  in  our  Book  of  Common  Prayer  and  Belief,  that 
the  separated  Christian  Communities  will  one  day 
pass  in  to  kneel  at  Christ's  feet  again,  an  Undivided 
Church.  Dr.  Smyth  himself  is  glad  to  tell  us  that 
Protestantism  is  no  longer  much  occupied  in  devising 
new  formulas  of  faith, — speaks  of  the  common  belief 
in  the  Apostles'  Creed,  of  "a  greater  Christianity  at 
the  door,"  of  a  "Holy  Church  throughout  all  the 
world,"  which  "the  first  Christian  professors  saw, 
and  which  Protestantism  has  lost  awhile."  He  com- 
pares its  various  ecclesiastical  confessions  to  "feudal 
castles  on  the  Rhine,  strongly  built,  with  moat  and 
tower,  and  their  dungeons  for  heretics  down  below"; 
refers  to  denominational  independency  cherished  and 
continued  as  "a  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost." 

"Looking  broadly  at  the  facts  of  life,"  writes  this  eminent 
Congregationalist,  "we  must  admit  the  relaxation  of  authority 
in  our  churches.  Religion  among  us  has  lost  authority  in  the 
family  life.  *  *  *  Religion  is  withdrawing  from  the 
churches.  In  almost  any  community  people  who  are  not  in 


CHRISTIANITY  A  CATHOLIC  RELIGION         203 

their  habits  of  mind  irreligious,  nor  without  faith  in  their  hearts, 
belong  to  no  church,  confess  no  creed,  and  rarely  attend  public 
worship.  He  writes  of  a  'literature,  mystical,  quietistic,  and 
spiritual,  but  neither  churchly  nor  very  distinctly  Christian, 
springing  up  outside  the  churches  and  beyond  their  creeds;  of 
religious  nebulousness ;  of  many  as  unattracted  by  Protestantism 
and  repelled  by  Romanism,  who,  having  disembarked  from  the 
faith  which  once  held  them,  seem  to  have  been  left  adrift  in 
uncertainty  by  our  Christianity;  and  the  night  comes  on." 

All  this  will  mean  but  little  to  the  man  or  woman 
whose  Church-feeling  is  mere  sentiment  or  personal 
enjoyment.  To  all  who  love  the  Church  as  the  crea- 
tion of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  bearing  His  message  con- 
cerning Christ  to  mankind  everywhere,  it  will  be  a 
different  matter. 

Woe  unto  us,  theologians  and  teachers,  who,  desiring 
to  be  and  to  be  "called  masters,"  hinder  those  who 
otherwise  would  come  in  from  entering  the  household 
and  kingdom  of  our  Lord,  by  our  additions  to  the 
simple,  broad  Faith  of  the  Apostolic  days.  Woe  unto 
us,  Roman  or  Protestant,  High  Church  or  Low,  called 
Catholic  or  called  Evangelical,  who  teach  for  doctrines 
the  commandments  and  the  interpretations  of  Augus- 
tine or  of  Loyola,  of  Anselm  or  Calvin  or  Luther, 
of  Wesley  or  Edwards,  in  a  way  to  make  The  Way 
which  is  Christ  difficult  to  His  little  ones.  Little  ones 
in  respect  to  age,  or  little  ones  as  regards  mental  and 
spiritual  power  to  feel  after  and  find  Him  who  is  Hun- 
self  the  Way,  the  Truth,  and  the  Life,  He  would  take 
them  all  in  the  arms  of  His  love.  His  Spirit  is  here  hi 
power,  to  draw  all  men  and  all  children  unto  Hun; 
but  of  little  use  is  it  for  the  Spirit  to  say,  "Come,"  if 
the  Bride  says,  "Wait;  come  only  when  you  can 
receive  this  or  that  'doxy,'  obey  such  and  such  rules 


204         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

of  practice,  mediaeval  or  modern,  imposed  as  terms  of 
membership  and  communion." 

There  are  many  ways  in  which  it  is  possible  to  grieve 
the  Spirit,  and  surely  not  the  least  culpable  of  them  is 
this  of  binding  burdens  of  doctrine  upon  men's  shoulders 
which  render  it  difficult  for  them  to  pass  in  through 
the  Church  door. 

The  Spirit  of  Universality  and  of  Unity  has  for  more 
than  three  hundred  years  been  overruling  for  good  the 
evils  of  a  disunited  Christendom;  and  it  is  above  all 
to  Him  that  we  need  and  ought  to  turn,  when,  the 
hour  having  plainly  come  for  better  things,  Christians 
are  asking  themselves  what  can  and  should  be  done 
to  hasten  their  arrival.  As  to  the  question, — next  to 
a  burning  one,  and  to  many  of  us  something  like  a 
dilemma, — shall  the  Church's  name  be  changed,  and 
if  so,  when?  the  Holy  Spirit's  counsel  should  be  often 
and  fervently  invoked.  The  more  truly  catholic-minded 
a  Churchman  is,  the  more  seriously,  it  would  seem,  he 
must  weigh  the  arguments  on  both  sides,  and  always 
"in  the  Spirit."  The  name  "Protestant"  expresses 
the  historical  and  permanent  attitude  of  the  entire 
Anglican  Communion  toward  the  Roman  Church. 
To  be  sure,  Dr.  Smyth  characterizes  Protestantism 
as  passing,  says  its  triumphal  arch  is  about  finished, 
and  that  the  names  of  its  victories  on  the  side  of  Bible 
truth  and  liberty  are  about  all  inscribed  on  its  walls; 
but  will  our  parting  with  that  name  be  comprehended 
by  Christians  generally,  and  in  the  Episcopal  Church 
itself? 

"Catholicism  is  coming,"  writes  Dr.  Smyth.  And 
if  this  means  that  many  are  ready  and  looking  for  it, 
we  who  in  God's  providence  are  in  trust  with  "the 


CHRISTIANITY  A  CATHOLIC  RELIGION         205 

Christian  Faith  as  professed  in  the  purest  ages  and  by 
the  purest  Churches,"  are  bound  by  every  right  and 
wise  expedient  to  prove  that  we  are.  Protestantism 
being  only  three  or  four  centuries  old,  and  our  Church 
and  Prayer  Book  being  what  they  are,  many  of  us  are 
keenly  sensible  that  the  present  title-page  of  the  latter 
does  not  tell,  or  imply,  the  whole  truth  about  both. 
No  change,  however,  ought  to  be  made  hastily  or 
without  some  measure  of  preparatory  education. 

It  is  perhaps  the  country  parson,  or  intelligent 
Sunday-school  or  Bible  Class  teacher,  who  is  most 
frequently  moved  to  desire  the  change.  It  is  said 
that  our  missionaries  in  foreign  lands  wish  for  it. 
What  of  clergy  in  the  home  fields?  Do  not  these  and 
their  earnest  co-workers  come  in  specially  close  contact 
with  people,  old  and  young,  who  have  been  hardened 
against,  or  rendered  simply  indifferent  to  all  religion 
by  the  perplexing,  if  not  distorted  and  torturing  doc- 
trinal teachings  of  one  or  another,  it  may  be  one  after 
the  other,  of  the  hundred  and  fifty  or  more  Protestant 
bodies?  The  clergyman  who  has  lived  in  a  college 
town,  and  year  by  year  come  in  touch  with  young  men 
having  "the  will  to  believe,"  yet  refusing  to  believe 
in  Christianity  as  it  has  so  far  been  presented  to  them, 
sorely  feels  the  difficulty  I  have  referred  to.  Our 
Church  is  to  these  youths,  soon  to  become  men  of 
influence  in  the  land,  just  what  it  is  to  the  plain  folk 
who  warm  their  hands,  and  chill  each  other's  hearts  in 
religious  discussion,  around  the  stove  in  the  corner- 
store, — simply  another  protestant  denomination,  ac- 
centuating another  individual  "doctrine"  or  "inter- 
pretation." 


206         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

The  country  Churchman,  priest  or  laic,  who  knows 
the  simplicity  and  health-bringing  catholicity  of  the 
Church's  message,  and  has  a  love  for  souls,  will 
ask:  "If  Rome  has,  in  the  matter  of  living  faith, 
slain  its  thousands, — Mr.  Dearmer  says,  its  seventeen 
millions  in  English-speaking  countries,  in  the  last 
century, — how  many  thousands  is  a  disunited,  creed- 
manufacturing,  creed-breaking  Protestantism  slay- 
ing?" 

"Protestant"  as  a  distinctive  part  of  our  title  is, 
and  will  long  continue  to  be,  associated  in  the  minds 
of  men  everywhere  with  the  independency  which  Dr. 
Smyth  terms  "a  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost,"  and  with 
forms  of  religion  which  he  declares  "are  losing  their 
hold  upon  multitudes  on  all  sides." 

The  name  "Episcopal,"  emphasizing  episcopacy  as 
though  it  were  the  chief  element  in  our  communion, 
peculiar  to  it  as  another  new  section  of  the  Church, — 
whereas  the  Church  Universal  has  been  from  the 
beginning  episcopal,  and  the  historic  Faith  is  more  of 
the  essence  of  the  Gospel  than  are  Holy  Orders, — 
tends  in  like  manner  to  disguise  her  Scriptural  wholeness. 
Around  the  corner  from  the  modest  chapel,  which  it  may 
be  is  ten  years  old,  there  stands  on  the  main  street  of 
the  town  a  fine  large  edifice  fifty  years  old,  also 
named  "Episcopal."  Nobody  besides  the  Rector  and 
one  or  two  of  his  communicants  is  aware  that  the 
hymn, 

"Welcome,  happy  morning," 

with  which  the  last  Easter  Service  began,  and  the 
Easter  Eucharist  itself,  originated  the  one  twelve  and 
the  other  fourteen  or  more  centuries  before  Wesleyan 


CHRISTIANITY  A  CATHOLIC  RELIGION         207 

episcopacy  saw  the  light.     Only  for  these  few  persons 
can  the  words  of  that  hymn, 

"Age  to  age  shall  say," 

possess  their  rich  and  stirring  import. 

It  is  not  for  their  antiquity,  hi  itself  considered,  that 
the  missionary  thinks  so  highly  of  these  features.  He 
is  convinced  that,  in  our  Lord's  phrase,  "the  old  is 
better."  Abreast  with  the  twentieth  century  hi  his 
ideas  and  feelings  generally,  and  hi  his  interest  for 
humanity,  he  knows  in  his  heart  that  the  Worship 
and  Faith  of  the  Church  embody  the  message  for  the 
twentieth  century  in  this  new  free  land  of  the  West, 
that  in  them  men  hear  the  voice  of  the  Spirit,  and  those 
simple,  living  verities,  which  our  age  needs. 

Not  the  love  of  antiquity,  but  the  love  of  humanity 
was  the  motive  of  De  Pressense"'s  words: 

"Aspiration  toward  the  Church  of  the  future  is  becoming 
more  general,  more  ardent;  but  for  all  who  admit  the  divine 
origin  of  Christianity  the  Church  of  the  future  has  its  type  and 
its  ideal  in  that  great  past  which  goes  back,  not  three,  but 
eighteen  centuries.  To  cultivate  a  growing  knowledge  of  this, 
in  order  to  attain  to  a  growing  conformity  to  it,  is  the  task  of 
the  Church  of  to-day." 

Hardly  anything  can  be  clearer  than  that  a  change 
in  the  Church's  name  will  be  fruitful  of  good  in  the 
degree  that  it  is  made  with  a  distinct  understanding 
and  warm  sympathy  on  the  part  of  her  people.  It  will 
be  desirable  to  cultivate  beforehand  in  them  the  grow- 
ing knowledge  of  the  Church's  past  of  which  De  Pres- 
sens6  wrote,  by  means  of  sermons  and  Sunday-school 
and  Bible  Class  instruction.  The  women  who  now 
busy  their  minds  with  books  bearing  on  Missions, 

14 


208         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

while  their  fingers  work  for  the  cause,  would  become 
yet  more  ardent  in  Auxiliary  activity,  if  the  reading 
were  extended  to  take  hi  something  of  early  Church 
history.  The  story  of  our  English  tongue  is  an  every- 
day "speaking  pageant"  of  the  experience  of  our  more 
and  more  world-dominating  race.  It  has  also  its  own 
testimony  to  bear  as  to  the  Church's  long  life,  as  the 
bright  women  in  the  Club  to  which  Dr.  Waterman 
referred  would  perceive  by  a  glance  at  certain  familiar 
Saxonized  Greek  words  in  the  larger  dictionaries. 
The  Gospel  was  first  proclaimed  in  Greek.  As  Bishop 
Westcott  has  said: 

"Most  if  not  all  the  Churches  of  the  West  were  Greek  religious 
colonies.  Their  Scriptures,  and  it  would  appear  their  Liturgy, 
was  Greek.  The  Rome  of  those  days  was  so  much  a  Greek  city 
that  the  poorer  part  of  the  population  was  largely  of  Greek 
descent."  The  word  Church  appears,  according  to  Worcester,  to 
have  "been  derived  from  the  Greek,  through  the  Anglo-Saxon. 
The  Goths,  as  stated  by  Dr.  Trench,  were  first  converted  to 
Christianity  by  Greek  missionaries  from  Constantinople,  who 
imparted  to  them  the  word  KvptaKt)  or  Kvpianov,  church,  and 
the  Goths  lent  the  word  to  other  German  tribes,  including  the 
Anglo-Saxons." 

Bible  is  another  word  of  the  same  kind,  and  so  is 
evangel,  and  these  three  words  in  themselves  corrobo- 
rate the  report  that  Christianity  was  early  at  home  in 
Britain.  But  bishop  and  priest  and  deacon  are  likewise 
terms  derived  from  the  Greek  through  the  Anglo- 
Saxon,  and  these  corroborate  the  record  of  history 
that  the  ancient  Church  of  England  was  episcopal. 

A  word  from  our  bishops  now  and  then,  in  a  pastoral 
letter  or  sermon,  and  even  in  a  confirmation  address, 
might  greatly  help  on  this  good  work  of  education. 


CHRISTIANITY  A  CATHOLIC  RELIGION         209 

The  Bishop  of  London,  speaking  at  the  recent  English 
Church  Pageant  at  Fulham  Palace,  said: 

"I  believe  immensely  in  teaching  through  the  eye.  *  *  * 
I  do  hope  and  believe  that  the  pageant  will  do  something  to 
remove  the  astounding  ignorance  of  so  many  Church  people  about 
their  own  Church,  and  to  make  us  all  prouder  of  the  inheritance 
of  our  fathers." 

Our  conscience  and  sense  of  responsibility  to  the 
Spirit,  and  to  our  brother  men,  need  arousing  as  truly 
as  our  just  pride.  An  editorial  in  a  leading  London 
newspaper  said  of  the  Pageant: 

"It  is  to  be  presumed  that  those  who  place  it  before  our  eyes 
are  not  doing  so  in  a  mere  antiquarian  spirit.  Rather  they  are 
saying,  'This  is  the  living  institution  which  carries  its  vigor  and 
its  witness  forward  in  ourselves.  This  is  the  old  historic  Church 
of  England,  of  which  we  now  are  the  representatives.' "  (Littell, 
"The  Historians  and  the  English  Reformation,"  pages  284,  285.) 

How  much  these  expressions,  and  the  Pageant 
referred  to,  mean  to  us  in  a  time  when  Christians  of 
nearly  every  name  are  drawing  each  year  closer  together, 
and  Church  Unity  and  Missions  are  in  the  air;  espe- 
cially when  consideration  is  given  to  Dr.  Fulton's  decla- 
ration, "I  believe  that  Christian  Unity  will  never  be 
restored  in  this  world  on  any  other  than  the  Chalce- 
donian  basis  of  unswerving  fidelity  to  the  Catholic 
Faith,  and  unlimited  liberty  in  all  other  particulars!" 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Littell,  in  the  volume  above  referred 
to,  presents  abundant  and  conclusive  testimony  of 
every  sort  to  the  continuity  of  the  English  Church, — 
and  therefore  of  our  own, — from  the  early  days  of 
Christianity,  in  Creed,  and  Doctrine,  and  Orders,  in 
Possessions,  in  every  way;  as  against  inaccurate  and 


210         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

often  worse  than  careless  writers  on  both  sides  the 
Atlantic.  That  the  Church  of  England  never  was  a 
part  of  the  Church  of  Rome;  that  she  holds  the  same 
Creeds,  has  the  same  Sacraments,  and  the  same 
Ministry,  is  essentially  the  same  Church  as  before  the 
Reformation,  and  no  new  Church  was  then  set  up, 
few  can  doubt  after  reading  that  work. 

Now  the  Services  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer, 
we  have  seen,  make  the  same  truth  evident  in  their 
own  way,  proving,  as  do  hundreds  of  historical  and 
legal  documents,  that  what  the  Reformers  of  the 
sixteenth  century  did  was  not  to  create  a  new  Faith, 
or  a  new  Church,  but  to  repudiate  certain  mediaeval 
accretions  of  doctrine,  and  to  reform  the  Church  of 
many  abuses.  Inasmuch  as  few  of  our  people  are 
students  either  of  Church  History  or  etymology,  a 
Prayer  Book  provided  with  dates,  and  references  to 
the  ancient  Sacramentaries,  and  other  similar  matter, 
if  practicable,  would  be  most  useful.  Placed  in  the 
margins  of  pages,  or  in  tables  like  those  found  at  present 
before  Morning  and  Evening  Prayer,  these  aids  would 
surely  be  resorted  to  gratefully  by  superintendents  and 
teachers,  and  many  others.  In  a  few  years  large 
numbers  of  our  worshippers  would  become  aware  of 
the  meaning  of  the  words,  "I  believe  in  the  Holy 
Catholic  Church,"  whose  minds  are  far  from  being 
clear  about  it  now.  Misled  during  the  week  by  the 
school  histories,  and  by  Macaulay,  and  Froude,  and 
Hallam,  by  Arnold,  and  even  Green,  it  would  be  possible 
on  Sunday  to  set  young  and  old  straight  as  to  whether 
the  English  Church  was  in  any  sense  or  degree  whatever 
the  creation  either  of  Henry  VIII  or  the  English  Parlia- 
ment of  the  sixteenth  century. 


CHRISTIANITY  A  CATHOLIC  RELIGION         211 

The  saying,  "that  the  force  of  a  word  is  exactly 
proportionate  to  the  number  of  ideas  which  it  connotes," 
is  certainly  true  as  applied  to  the  venerable  word  of 
which  we  have  been  speaking.  It  connotes  the  entire 
wealth  of  divine  truths  and  institutions  with  which 
Christ's  Spirit  has  enriched  us, — and  to  which  no 
Church  in  Christendom  has  a  better  claim.  To  employ 
it  frequently  in  a  familiar  and  natural  way  would  have 
a  more  educational  and  illuminating  effect  than  to 
make  a  place  for  it  in  our  title.  It  would  cast  new 
light  upon  the  old  Faith,  and  be  a  much-needed  lantern 
to  the  feet  of  inquirers  in  our  day.  Catholic  stands 
for  wholeness.  Our  age  needs  to  be  guided  to  the 
entire  truth  of  the  Apostolic  and  Nicene  period, 
"not  one  jot  more,  and  not  one  jot  less."  As  Dr. 
Fulton  said: 

"We  often  hear  men  say,  'Give  us  the  Christianity  of  Christ!' 
It  is  a  just  demand.  It  represents  a  lawful  and  laudable  resent- 
ment at  the  endless  additions  to  the  Christianity  of  Christ,  by 
which  the  Gospel  has  been  obscured  and  Christ  Himself  has  been 
hidden  behind  a  mass  of  human  inventions.  By  all  means  let  us 
have  the  Christianity  of  Christ,  and  nothing  else  than  that.  But 
by  all  means  let  us  have  the  whole  of  it!  Let  us  have  all  that  the 
Apostles  remembered  and  the  Evangelists  recorded ;  and  then  let 
us  have  the  deep  meaning  of  it  all,  the  fulness  of  the  truth  of  it, 
which  the  Holy  Spirit  revealed  to  them."  ("Chalcedonian 
Decree,"  page  65.) 

It  is  in  the  Trinity  Season,  when  to  the  Epistles 
belong  the  dominating  thought  and  motive  of  the 
Services, — that  we  have  shown  to  us  this  same  "deep 
meaning  of  it  all,"  the  "fulness  of  the  truth  of  the 
Christianity  of  Christ."  In  other  words,  these  Sun- 
days of  the  long  Pentecostal  period  contain  the  dis- 


212        THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

tinctively  "strong  meat"  of  the  Gospel,  belonging  "to 
them  that  are  of  perfect  age,"  not  "milk"  for  such  as 
are  babes  (Heb.  5:12-14);  the  "things"  of  Christ 
which  He  said  the  disciples  were  "not  able  to  bear" 
before  His  departure,  but  which  the  Spirit  would 
teach  them.  In  these  more  advanced  truths  consist 
the  vital  and  dominant  elements  of  the  Gospel  to  which 
the  Bishops  in  Chalcedon  bore  their  testimony,  and 
which  the  consciousness  of  Christendom  has  accepted 
as  the  witness  of  the  Spirit  in  the  Church.  "This  is 
the  Faith  of  the  Fathers,"  the  cry  went  up  when  the 
record  of  the  great  Council  was  read.  "This  is  the 
Faith  of  the  Apostles,  This  we  all  believe," 


THE  HOLY  MINISTRY 

Our  sufficiency  is  of  God;  who  also  hath  made  us  able  ministers 
of  the  new  testament. — 2d  Cor.  3  :  5,  6. 

His  grace  which  was  bestowed  upon  me  was  not  in  vain. — 
1st  Cor.  15  :  10. 

I  therefore,  the  prisoner  of  the  Lord. — Eph.  4:1. 

I  bow  my  knees  unto  the  Father  *  *  *  that  Christ  may 
dwell  in  your  hearts  by  faith. — Eph.  3  :  14,  17. 

I  thank  my  God — that  ye  are  enriched  by  him  in  all  utterance. 
—1st  Cor.  1  :  4, 5. 

Praying  for  me,  that  utterance  may  be  given  unto  me. — 
Eph.  6  : 18, 19. 

Let  men  be  careful  how,  in  their  human  speculations  they 
depart  from  the  simplicity  of  the  sacred  Scriptures,  and  trifle 
with  the  holy  and  exalted  ministry  which  God  has  appointed; 
lest  on  the  one  hand  they  degrade  it,  as  many  do,  into  a  sacrificing 


THE  HOLY  MINISTRY  213 

priesthood,  like  that  of  an  effete  paganism  or  that  of  an  abrogated 
Judaism;  and  lest  on  the  other  hand  they  degrade,  as  many 
others  do,  into  a  mere  man-made  committeeship  of  a  mere 
human  society  that  Divinely-constituted  ministry  in  the  Church 
of  God  which  is  the  "gift"  of  the  Holy  Ghost.— Bishop  Vail. 

We  may  not  even  appear  to  think  lightly  of  the  historic 
Episcopate  which  is  supported  by  the  practically  unanimous 
judgment  of  nearly  fifteen  centuries,  and  has  been  amply  jus- 
tified by  its  results. — Bishop  Westcott. 

The  world  is  suffering  upon  every  hand  for  lack  of  preachers 
who  can  go  forth  into  it  with  the  learning,  the  devotion,  the  fire 
of  the  men  who  conquered  the  philosophy  of  Greece,  and  the  old 
lore  of  Egypt,  and  won  to  the  Gospel  the  wide  practical  knowledge 
of  the  world-mastering  Rome;  men  who  can  now  so  preach  the 
truths  of  God's  word  and  the  Divine  life  of  the  Son  of  Man  to  the 
mind  and  the  thought  of  this  age,  that  eternity  shall  become 
again  to  the  hearts  of  those  who  hear  even  more  real  than  time, 
and  the  spirit  and  teaching  of  Christ  be  felt  as  more  wise  than 
all  the  earth-bounded  sciences  of  man. — Dr.  Garrison. 

He  should  be  full  of  the  Holy  Ghost  as  a  preacher.  Otherwise 
he  may  not  have  that  special  form  of  power  which,  under  God, 
reaches  the  heart  of  the  impenitent,  creates  a  deep  longing  for 
God,  inspires  fear  and  hope,  and  at  last  faith  in  Christ  as  the 
Saviour  of  men.  A  man  may  be  a  great  saint.  His  life  may 
be  lived  on  the  heights;  he  may  be  intensely  earnest;  may  desire 
to  seek  and  save  the  lost;  may  have  the  natural  gift  of  eloquence; 
but  beside  and  above  all  these  there  must  be  the  direct  gift  of 
the  Spirit  for  the  special  object  of  convincing  men  and  drawing 
them  to  the  Lord. — Dr.  Dale. 

In  an  age  when  many  who  profess  and  call  themselves 
Christians  apparently  have  no  conception  that  there 
is  any  direct  influence  of  the  Spirit  in  the  making  of  a 
minister  of  Christ,  and  think  of  the  ministry  as  only 
a  profession  which  the  people  authorize,  or  which  a 
man  may  take  up  or  may  lay  down  at  his  pleasure, 
it  is  a  much- needed  testimony  to  Scriptural  truth 


214         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

which  the  Prayer  Book  bears.  It  speaks  of  the 
Ministry  as  an  official  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit  now, 
as  it  was  in  the  Apostles'  days.  So  far  as  the  Trinity 
Season  is  concerned,  let  it  be  observed  that  the  six 
passages  from  the  Epistles, — from  First  and  Second 
Corinthians  and  Ephesians, — found  in  six  Sunday 
Services,  being  those  of  the  Eleventh,  Twelfth,  Six- 
teenth, Seventeenth,  Eighteenth,  and  Twenty-third 
Sundays,  they  clearly  mark  the  sacred  Ministry  as  one 
of  the  Trinity  Season  themes  and  subjects  of  prayer. 

As  to  the  ministry  being  Apostolic,  it  is  to  be  under- 
stood at  the  outset  and  always,  the  whole  body 
of  the  Church  is  apostolic.  No  proof  is  forthcoming 
that  the  commission  given  by  Christ  on  the  evening 
of  His  Resurrection  was  addressed  to  "the  eleven" 
to  the  exclusion  of  "them  that  were  with  them"; 
or  that  the  Pentecostal  Spirit  fell  only  on  the  Twelve, 
to  be  dispensed  to  the  rest.  Within  the  Church 
of  the  New  Covenant  all  are  priests.  None  are  secular. 
Priests  and  people,  we  are  all  "kings  and  priests  unto 
God,"  we  are  all  "a  royal  priesthood,  a  peculiar  people." 
Therefore  are  all,  ministers  or  laymen,  consecrated 
in  our  baptism, — some  of  us  believe,  in  our  confirma- 
tion more  particularly,  to  be  in  our  several  stations, 
and  according  to  our  individual  opportunities,  medi- 
ators "unto  God"  on  behalf  of  others,  and  responsible 
to  Him  for  the  spiritual  well-being  of  those  around  us. 

On  the  other  hand,  as  Canon  Mason  expresses  it, 
"Ordination,"  that  is,  "promotion  in  the  hierarchy  of 
which  we  are  all  members,  carries  with  it  an  intensified 
power  of  priesthood."  And  this  order  is  "essential," 
not  a  mere  convenience.  The  Church  was  from  the 
beginning,  and  is  always,  an  organism  in  the  Spirit.  - 


THE  HOLY  MINISTRY  215 

Some  one  has  asked,  "Can  we  think  of  anything 
that  is  done  in  the  Church  without  the  Creator-Spirit?" 
Indeed  when  we  speak  of  religious  institutions  as 
founded,  have  they  not  rather  been  created,  and  grown? 
Our  Lord  Himself,  in  the  Spirit,  created  the  Apostolate, 
and  the  manner  in  which  it  developed  afterward  into 
an  ordered  ministry  was,  as  has  been  already  observed, 
a  way  of  life.  When  the  sun  rises,  the  plant  is  there. 
Enough  for  us  that  within  the  life-time  of  those  who 
learned  from  the  Apostles  it  was  recognized  that  no 
Church  could  be  complete  without  the  Episcopate, 
and  the  other  two  orders  of  Priests  and  Deacons; 
and  that  only  Bishops  might  ordain. 

Enough  for  us  that  this  Apostolical  Ministry,  spread- 
ing widely  in  the  world,  and  hence  compared  by  our 
Lord  to  a  net  (Matt.  13  : 47),  and  also  comparable  to 
the  human  spine,  vertebrate,  linked  together,  flexuous 
and  flexible,  a  wonderful  bond  of  unity,  communicating 
life  and  nerve-force  to  every  part  of  the  body,  became 
a  universal,  historic,  ministry.  "It  is  evident  unto 
all  men  reading  Holy  Scripture  and  ancient  Authors, 
that  the  infant  Church  was  born  of  the  Spirit  practi- 
cally thus  equipped,  and  that  "from  the  Apostles' 
time  there  have  been  these  Orders  of  Ministers  in  it." 
(Preface  to  the  Ordinal.)  It  is,  however,  also  evident 
that  this  same  three-ordered  Ministry  would  have 
exercised  its  various  spiritual  functions  more  freely 
and  beneficially,  and  stand  out  more  clearly  to-day 
before  Christendom  as  a  divine  institution,  nobly 
planned  and  full  of  grace  and  power,  had  not  the 
Papal  system  crippled  and  paralyzed  the  Episcopate, 
cutting  off  its  flow  of  healthful  energy. 

When  Luther  deplored  the  loss  to  German  Chris- 


216         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

tians  of  what  we  call  the  historic  Episcopate,  and 
Calvin  made  a  distinct  effort  to  recover  it  for  Switzer- 
land, when  John  Wesley  protested  against  separation 
from  the  Church  of  England,  it  was  because  they 
knew  what  the  Episcopate  had  been  to  the  Church 
Catholic  from  the  beginning,  and  believed  it  to  be 
essential  to  the  continuity,  integrity,  and  vigour  of  her 
life  throughout  the  ages,  and  in  all  lands.  It  is  only 
just  to  quote  here  the  assertion  in  Palmer's  Treatise 
on  the  Church,  that  neither  Luther  nor  Zwingli  were 
Separatists,  and  that  Calvin  "expressly  defends  the 
obligation  of  human  traditions,  amongst  the  rest 
approves  of  the  constitution  of  the  primitive  Church — 
arch-bishops,  bishops  *  *  *  arch-deacons,  sub- 
deacons  *  *  *  in  fact  the  whole  hierarchy.  This 
system  he  regarded  as  scarcely  in  any  respect  dis- 
sonant from  the  word  of  God."  (Vol.  II,  page  51.) 

How  rich  then  is  our  heritage,  and  how  solemn  our 
responsibility  in  regard  to  it!  Inheritors  of  the  Truth 
in  its  wholeness,  and  of  divine  institutions  unimpaired, 
and  still  invested  with  saving  power, — not  least  among 
these  the  gift  of  the  Spirit  in  Holy  Orders, — we  owe 
it  not  merely  to  ourselves,  but  to  the  world  for  which 
the  Son  of  God  died,  and  to  which  we  are  "sent," 
above  all  to  the  personal  Spirit  Himself,  to  guard, 
cherish  and  transmit  them  pure  and  entire. 

Speaking  of  those  who  deny  the  perpetuity  of  the 
Pentecostal  Gift,  Dr.  Downer  asks, 

"What  then  shall  become  of  the  vast  heathen  world,  if  the 
power  given  to  the  Church  to  evangelize  it  has  been  withdrawn," 
*  *  *  "where  is  the  power  that  is  to  accompany  the  written 
or  spoken  word,  when  the  ambassador  for  Christ  stands  forth 
in  His  Name  to  utter  his  testimony?  Where  is  the  sacred  link 


THE  HOLY  MINISTRY  217 

that  must  join  the  outward  sign  with  the  inward  grace,  that  must 
give  all  their  sweetness  and  all  their  efficacy  to  the  sacraments 
of  God's  love?"  *  *  *  "It  is  not  so.  The  living  Spirit 
is  with  us  still — to  perform  the  labor,  to  do  the  difficult  task, 
to  speak  the  difficult  word." 

The  four  Ember  (Quatember)  Weeks, — and  the 
Trinity  and  September  ones  especially, — ought  to 
lie  near  the  hearts  of  parents  and  sponsors,  of  Sunday- 
school  and  all  Christian  teachers. 

For  who  may  say  how  far  back  in  the  individual 
mind  and  soul  preparation  for  the  priestly  and  pastoral 
life  can,  and  therefore  should,  begin?  While  the 
Church's  Ministry  did  not  at  the  beginning,  nor  does 
it  to-day,  as  some  have  imagined,  derive  its  authority 
from  below  by  delegation,  the  man  upon  whom  the 
sacred  authority  and  duty  devolve  does  come  from  be- 
low; from  the  people,  out  of  the  pew,  out  of  the  school. 
The  family  worship  and  life,  parental  example  and 
influence,  the  prayers  and  the  tactful  words  of  teachers, 
the  Church's  fellowship  and  social  atmosphere,  with 
his  own  youthful  praying  and  thinking,  have  under 
the  Spirit  made  him  what  he  is.  Hannah  of  olden 
time  has  not  been  the  only  mother  who  has  prayed 
and  promised  to  God,  as  the  sacred  record  reads. 
"For  this  child  I  prayed;  and  the  Lord  hath  given  me 
my  petition  which  I  asked  of  him;  therefore  also  I 
have  lent — granted — him  to  the  Lord;  as  long  as 
he  liveth  he  is  granted  to  the  Lord."  One  now 
living  and  in  Holy  Orders,  with  whom  I  am 
acquainted,  was,  in  times  of  doubt  as  to  his  fitness 
and  sufficient  readiness  to  receive  the  holy  charge, 
kept  constant  to  his  purpose  partly  by  the  knowl- 
edge that  his  dear  mother  had  consecrated  him 


218         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

to     the    Church's    sacred    ministry,    hypothetically, 
before  he  was  born. 

Criticisms  of  the  Church's  clergy  as  regards  devotion 
and  a  consecrated  spirit,  or  wisdom,  or  tact,  or  any 
sort  of  spiritual  and  mental  furnishing,  reflect  in  no 
small  measure,  if  not  quite  as  much,  upon  the  character 
of  the  homes  and  social  circles,  the  Sunday-schools 
and  other  schools,  out  of  which  they  have  come. 


PRAYER,  WORD,  AND  SACRAMENT 

Ask,  and  it  shall  be  given  unto  you. — Matt.  7  :  7. 

The  engrafted  word  which  is  able  to  save  your  souls. — James 
1  :21. 

Baptism  doth  also  now  save  us. — 1st  Pet.  3  :  21. 

Whoso  eateth  my  flesh,  and  drinketh  my  blood,  hath  eternal 
life.— John  6  :  54. 

Desire  the  sincere  milk  of  the  word,  that  ye  may  grow  thereby. 
—1st  Pet.  2  :  2. 

Strong  meat  belongeth  to  them  that  are  of  full  age. — Heb. 
5  :  14. 

That  which  we  have  heard,  which  we  have  seen  with  our  eyes, 
which  we  have  looked  upon,  and  our  hands  have  handled,  of  the 
word  of  life. — 1st  John  1:1. 

I  dare  say  I  am  speaking  to  many  Non-conformists  who 
honestly  believe,  or  have  been  brought  up  to  believe,  that  an 
outward  and  visible  sign,  like  Baptism  or  Confirmation  or  Holy 
Communion,  gets  between  the  soul  and  God.  Yes,  it  does,  if 
a  mother's  kiss  gets  between  the  mother  and  the  child — if  the 
mother's  kiss  gets  between  the  love  of  the  mother  and  the  child, 
so  as  to  stop  it;  it  does  if  the  rope  on  the  ice-slope  which  con- 
nects me  with  my  guide  gets  between  me  and  my  guide.  And 


PRAYER,  WORD,  AND  SACRAMENT     219 

therefore  I  do  ask  those  honest,  earnest  people  who  have  been 
divorced  and  driven  from  the  old  home  to  which  they  all  once 
belonged, — for  it  is  within  the  last  three  hundred  years  that  all 
the  non-conforming  bodies  in  England  have  taken  their  rise, — 
to  ask  themselves  this  question:  "Has  there  not  been  misunder- 
standing? Is  it  really  Jesus  who  said, /Go  into  all  the  world 
and  baptize  them  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and 
of  the  Holy  Ghost?'  Then  baptism  cannot  be  only  a  form, 
because  Jesus  was  no  formalist.  Is  it  really  true  that  in  the 
New  Testament,  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  it  is  said,  'Then 
laid  they  their  hands  upon  them,  and  they  received  the  Holy 
Ghost,  for  as  yet  He  had  fallen  upon  none  of  them'?  Then  it 
cannot  be  wrong  to  think  that  the  laying  on  of  hands  is  the 
outward  and  visible  sign  of  the  falling  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  because 
it  is  in  the  Bible.  Have  I  been  misunderstanding  the  Holy 
Communion?  If  Jesus  Christ  took  bread  and  said,  'This  is 
my  Body,'  and  took  wine  and  said,  'This  is  my  Blood/  then  it 
is  not  the  Church  that  founded  the  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Com- 
munion. Jesus  Christ  would  never  have  used  that  language 
unless  He  meant  that  in  some  very  special  way  we  became  in  the 
Holy  Communion  partakers  of  the  Divine  Nature.  He  must 
have  meant  in  some  special  way  to  convince  me  of  His  love  and 
give  me  of  His  Spirit."  Therefore,  I  ask  those  who  have,  per- 
haps,'been  kept  for  years  from  the  old  home  and  the  old  Sacra- 
ments, to  think  over  why  they  should  not  have  the  ring  put  upon 
their  fingers  as  the  prodigal  did;  why  they  should  not  have  the 
robe;  why  they  should  not  have  the  feast  which  has  been  pre- 
pared, and  accept  the  love  of  the  Trinity  in  the  ordained  way. — 
Bishop  Ingram. 

Our  religion  is  a  catholic,  many-sided  religion, 
because  we  are  human,  and  many-sided  ourselves, 
made  of  the  dust,  although  as  Tennyson  sang, 

"Thou  wilt  not  leave  us  in  the  dust." 

Christ  was  human,  is  human  now  in  heaven,  and  by 
the  Spirit  He  comes,  and  touches,  influences,  dwells 
in  us,  through  these  many  sides.  Christ,  we  are  told 


220         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

by  the  disciple  who  had  leaned  on  His  breast  and 
received  His  life  in  the  first  Eucharist,  was  seen  and 
heard  and  handled;  and  by  his  Spirit  He  is  heard, 
handled  and  seen  now,  in  the  sense  that  the  visible 
Church  is  called,  and  therefore  is,  His  Body.  To 
listen  to  the  Word  is  to  listen  to  Christ,  and  to  touch 
and  receive  the  holy  things  He  has  appointed  to  rep- 
resent Him  in  this  the  Spirit's  era  is  to  touch  Him. 
This  is  the  truth  of  the  Incarnation  as  it  affects  us 
now.  Whether  the  ministers  of  the  Lord,  the  Spirit, 
preach  or  baptize,  lay  on  hands,  or  offer  the  memorial 
of  Jesus'  death  and  glorious  resurrection,  He  is  with 
them  even  to  the  end  of  the  world,  in  the  Spirit. 

Of  prayer  it  has  been  said,  that  "all  Christian 
prayer  in  the  Lord's  name  is  founded  upon  the  eucha- 
ristic  Communion  and  Sacrifice";  and  conversely  this 
Communion  is  itself  that  greatest  of  all  prayers,  in 
which,  offered  with  our  lips  and  with  our  hands,  and 
blessed  by  the  Spirit,  we  ask  and  receive  most  richly. 

Putting  together  what  St.  Peter  and  St.  James 
respectively  say  regarding  Baptism  and  the  Word, 
we  learn  that  both  are  means  of  grace.  The  Word 
itself  has  a  saving  power  and  is  in  a  way  sacramental. 
According  to  the  Scriptures,  in  the  Word  as  truly  as 
in  the  Eucharist,  Christians  receive  and  feed  upon 
Christ  through  the  Spirit.  It  is  "milk."  It  is  "strong 
meat,"  just  as  His  "flesh  is  meat  indeed,  and  His 
blood  drink  indeed."  It  was  the  Spirit  who  created 
us  human,  and  of  the  dust,  of  the  earth  earthy,  and 
who  in  every  little  child  born  now  unites  the  opposite 
elements,  spirit  and  flesh,  and  it  is  He  who  makes  all 
the  different  means  of  grace  work  together  for  our 
nourishment  and  growth  in  the  new  life  in  Christ. 


PRAYER,  WORD,  AND  SACRAMENT  221 

And  it  is  a  wise  Christian  obedience  that  uses  them  all, 
and  seeks  to  learn  and  appreciate  their  value  for  body 
and  soul  as  redeemed  through  the  life  and  death  of  a 
divine-human  Saviour.  It  learns  to  admire  and  love 
them  as  different  avenues  by  which  the  Father,  in  His 
Son  and  by  His  loving  Spirit,  imparts  the  life  which 
shall  be  forever  spiritual,  yet  wholly  human. 

By  these  various  means  the  mighty  work  of  recon- 
ciliation and  restoration  is  carried  on.  These  all  are 
the  voice,  the  hands,  the  everlasting  arms,  the  very 
kiss,  of  God.  What  the  Bishop  of  London  says  above 
of  Sacraments  as  figured  by  the  mother's  kiss  applies 
really  to  the  whole  method  and  manner  of  Christ's 
holy  Incarnation, — His  flesh-becoming, — as  applied 
to  our  entire  humanity,  body,  soul  and  spirit,  forever. 
In  the  Word  itself  the  true  believer  feels  as  it  were  the 
Father's,  the  Son's,  and  the  Spirit's  embrace  of  "love 
divine,  all  love  excelling."  Beside  the  "ring"  in  the 
most  evangelical  and  comforting  of  all  parables,  that 
of  the  prodigal  son,  the  touching  words,  "He  fell  on 
his  neck  and  kissed  him,"  are  not  there  for  nothing. 
In  Baptism,  in  Confirmation,  in  the  Communion, 
and  just  as  truly  in  the  Absolution,  in  all  earnest 
prayer  in  the  Spirit,  and  in  many  a  sermon,  thought 
out,  delivered  and  listened  to  in  the  Spirit,  one  may 
feel  the  ring  going  on,  and  feel  God's  kiss  on  the  lips, 
in  forgiving,  reconciling  love.  It  is  as  when  friends 
"make  up"  in  the  every-day  earthly  life.  Eye  and 
tongue,  hand  and  lips,  all  have  their  part  in  it. 

Thus  Word  and  Prayer  and  Sacrament  are  all  as 
one  in  the  Spirit,  and  considering  Who  the  Spirit  is, 
and  what  we  are,  we  should  expect  it.  God's  holy 
Word  is  a  "word  of  grace,"  a  "word  of  salvation," 


222         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

a  word  "quick  and  powerful."  We  need  to  go  to 
school  to  it,  learn  the  language  of  God  to  our  human 
soul  and  spirit,  not  trusting  merely  to  what  Shakespeare 
calls  love's  "feeling  disputation,"  i.  e.,  demonstration. 

Mortimer  says  to  his  Welsh  wife,  Glendower's 
daughter,  whose  heart  he  knows,  without  knowing 
yet  her  mountain  language:  "I  understand  thy  looks; 
*  *  *  I  understand  thy  kisses,  and  thou  mine, 
and  that's  a  feeling  disputation,  but  I  will  never  be  a 
truant,  love,  till  I  have  learned  thy  language."  Ap- 
plying the  principle,  thus  poetically  and  humanly 
illustrated,  to  our  earthly-heavenly  relationship  to 
the  Father  in  the  Church  of  His  dear  Son,  mediated 
by  that  Third  Person  Whom  Bishop  Andrewes  termed 
"the  Love-Knot  of  the  Trinity,"  we  shall  desire  and 
pray  never  to  play  truant  and  shirk  our  task,  till  we 
comprehend  with  all  saints  what  God  would  in  holy 
Scripture  tell  us  of  Himself  and  our  deep  need  of  Him. 

Returning  to  the  side  of  "feeling  disputation,"  is 
it  not  a  fact  that  we  can  hardly  over-estimate  what 
it  is  graciously  intended  to  be  to  us,  in  connection  with 
the  enlightening  and  quickening  Word?  Not  as 
children  merely,  but  as  grown  men  and  women,  we 
often  feel  a  want  of  being  taken  as  it  were  into  the 
arms  of  God.  There  are  times  when  on  account  of 
certain  physical  or  mental  conditions,  or  a  sad  yielding 
to  some  besetting  fault,  it  is  hard  to  pray,  or  even  to 
think  of  God  and  thirst  after  Him,  as  at  other  times  we 
can.  Well  is  it  for  us  then  to  realize  what  the  Holy 
Communion  is  meant  to  be  to  our  weakness,  our  cold- 
ness, our  very  skepticism,  namely,  God's  comforting, 
life-giving  embrace. 

And  what,  finally,  of  our  own  side  in  this  heavenly 


PRAYER,  WORD,  AND  SACRAMENT  223 

transaction, — our  own  return  of  thankful  affection 
and  confidence?  Can  we  think  of  the  Prodigal  Son 
as  not  returning  his  father's  kiss,  of  the  Shunam- 
mite's  child  waxing  warm  and  opening  his  eyes,  at 
the  touch  and  embrace  of  Elisha,  yet  making  no  sign 
of  loving  gratitude?  "Kiss  the  Son,"  it  reads  in  the 
Easter  Morning  Psalm,  "lest  he  be  angry,  and  so  ye 
perish  from  the  right  way."  Let  the  man  who  thinks 
this  a  harsh  word  take  sober  second  thought.  Let 
him  reflect  on  what  the  Eucharist  means  to  God 
Himself  as  our  opportunity  to  render  grateful  adoration. 
In  the  gift  of  His  dear  Son,  He  has  done  immensely 
more  than  to  run  and  meet  us.  He  has  gone  the  whole 
way,  to  bring  us  home.  By  the  Incarnation  and 
Atonement,  and  the  present  work  of  the  Spirit  founded 
upon  them,  God  has  through  the  centuries  been,  so 
to  say,  stretching  Himself  upon  our  humanity,  mouth 
to  mouth,  eyes  to  eyes,  hands  to  hands,  in  a  life-giving 
contact;  and  every  Communion  is,  in  part,  an  open, 
personal  acknowledgment  from  our  side  that  this  is 
the  real  truth  about  it. 

The  things,  then,  that  Christ  and  the  Spirit  have 
joined  together,  let  no  man  put  asunder  even  in  his 
thoughts.  The  very  thought  would  appear  to  be  a 
tare  sown  by  our  Enemy.  Divide  et  impera  is  one 
of  his  watchwords  in  the  spiritual  warfare  against  us. 
He  would  separate  and  set  against  each  other  not 
individual  Christians  and  Churches  merely,  but  divine 
and  saving  truths;  exalt  one  by  lowering  the  other; 
induce  us  to  make  much  of  this  one  and  leave  that  one 
in  the  corner. 

The  Prayer  Book  is  true  to  our  soul's  highest  interests 
in  joining  to  the  Eucharistic  Service,  not  only  Epistles 


224         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

and  Gospels,  the  Litany,  and  other  prayers,  but 
Lessons  also,  and  sermons.  It  is  true  to  the  Spirit 
in  this,  which  is  to  very  many  of  us  but  one  sign  and 
fruit  of  sanctified  common  sense;  since  the  richer  the 
Holy  Communion  is  as  a  possible  means  of  grace,  the 
greater  must  be  the  necessity  for  solemn  and  searching 
words,  read  or  spoken  immediately  before  it.  Spiritual 
sermons  and  addresses  at  the  time  tend  to  deepen  our 
sense  of  spiritual  need  at  the  time.  They  cause  a  hunger 
for  that  which  the  Holy  Communion  can  impart. 
It  has  been  well  said  that  Christianity  is  a  reasonable 
religion,  addressed  to  the  intelligence  as  well  as  to  the 
affections  of  God's  creatures.  Dr.  Garrison  says: 

"Preaching  is  the  Divine  Word  coming  forth,  winged  by  the 
Spirit,  from  the  heart  of  a  true  man  of  God,  and  as  such  has 
always  been,  and  was  ordained  to  be,  a  vital  element  in  the 
Church's  great  commission,  and  in  the  work  which  was  given 
her  to  do.  *  *  *  Especially  fatal  will  it  be  to  the  Church 
of  our  time,  should  the  tendency,  now  rife  in  many  minds,  to 
thrust  preaching  into  a  corner,  prevail  among  the  body  of  our 
clergy,  and  they  grow  to  feel,  as  some  already  say,  that 
'anything  will  do  for  a  sermon  if  only  the  service  be  per- 
formed.'" *  *  * 


HOLY   COMMUNION 

My  Father  giveth  you  the  true  bread  out  of  heaven. — 
John  6  :  32. 

I  am  the  bread  of  life.  — John  6: 35. 

My  flesh  is  meat  indeed  and  my  blood  is  drink  indeed. — 
John  6  :  55. 


HOLY  COMMUNION  225 

He  took  bread,  and  when  he  had  blessed,  he  brake  it. — 
Mark  14  :  22. 

He  took  bread,  and  when  he  had  given  thanks  (evxapwT^cras) 
he  brake  it,  and  gave  to  them,  saying,  This  is  my  body  which 
is  given  for  you:  this  do  in  remembrance  of  me. — Luke  22  :  19. 

Else  if  thou  bless  in  spirit,  how  shall  he  that  filleth  the  place 
of  layman  say  the  Amen  at  thy  giving  of  thanks  (eu^acricrTia) , 
seeing  he  knoweth  not  what  thou  sayest. — 1st  Cor.  14  :  16. 

The  Holy  Spirit  whom  the  Father  will  send  in  my  name,  he 
shall  teach  you  all  things,  and  bring  to  your  remembrance  all 
that  I  said  unto  you. — John  14  :  26. 

Side  by  side  with  the  human  doing  ('this  do')  there  is  a  Divine 
doing.  In  the  religion  of  spirit  and  life  a  ceremony  of  pure 
commemoration  cannot  exist;  every  rite  celebrated  according 
to  its  spirit  must  contain  a  grace,  a  Divine  gift,  and  here  it  must 
be  the  most  intimate  union  with  the  Lord  Himself.  *  *  * 
How  could  He  who  said:  "Where  two  or  three  are  gathered 
together  in  my  name,  I  am  in  the  midst  of  them,"  fail  to  com- 
municate Himself  spiritually  to  His  own  in  a  feast  which  so 
sensibly  represents  the  indissoluble  union  formed  by  redemp- 
tion between  Him  and  them?  I  say,  spiritually;  but  the  word 
implies  the  whole  fulness  of  His  person;  for  His  person  is  indi- 
visible If  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead  dwells  in  Christ  bodily 
(Col.  2:9),  His  spiritual  body  cannot  be  separated  from  His 
Spirit. — Godet. 

This  idea  is  just  the  same  in  all  Christian  Churches  whether 
the  sacrament  is  taken  with  more  or  less  submission  to  the 
mystery,  with  more  or  less  accommodation  to  what  is  intelligible. 
It  always  remains  a  holy  weighty  ceremony,  which  presents  itself 
in  the  actual  world  in  the  place  of  what  one  may  call  the  possible 
or  the  impossible — in  the  place  of  what  man  can  neither  attain  nor 
do  without. — Goethe. 

In  all  the  primitive  liturgies  which  we  have  in  their  original 
Greek,  the  pervading  thought  and  life  of  the  whole  service  was 
its  dependence  on  the  presence  and  operation  of  the  Holy  Ghost; 
in  all  its  parts  and  for  all  who  were  engaged  in  it  or  to  be  bene- 
fited by  it,  its  vitality  and  efficacy  came  from  the  personal 
ministration  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  Its  blessings  were  conveyed, 

15 


226         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

its  ministers  empowered,  its  "gifts"  offered  and  sanctified,  its 
recipients  prepared,  its  communion  made  living,  wholly  by  the 
act  and  bestowal  of  the  Holy  Ghost. — Dr.  Garrison. 

Rome  and  the  Churches  that  paid  obedience  to  her,  alone 
wandered  from  the  unity  of  Christendom  in  this  particular. 
After  the  schism  of  East  and  West,  forgetting  the  older  tradition, 
growing  ignorant  of  the  Fathers,  under  the  guidance  of  a  material- 
ized notion  of  the  Eucharistic  Presence,  Rome  slowly  evolved  a 
new  and  unprimitive  theory  of  consecration,  which  dominated 
the  thought  of  the  West  until  the  Reformation. — Dr.  Gummey. 

Living  in  the  dispensation  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  recognizing 
Him  as  the  Lord,  and  Giver  of  Life,  and  the  source  of  all  sancti- 
fication  and  effectual  operation  in  the  fulfilment  of  the  Divine 
Will  on  earth,  it  was  natural  that  in  the  freshness  of  its  unsullied 
faith  the  early  Church  should  attribute  to  His  operation  the 
sanctification  of  the  memorial  offerings  of  the  Eucharist  to  the 
effectual  participation  in  the  precious  gifts  denoted  by  them; 
and  that  to  this  end  it  should  invoke  the  Holy  Spirit  in 
words  of  solemn  prayer.  This  it  certainly  did.  This  the 
Eastern  Church  has  continually  done.  This,  by  the  singular 
grace  and  providence  of  God,  the  American  Use, — derived  by 
tradition  from  these  venerable  sources  through  the  agency  of  the 
Scottish  Church  influenced  by  the  fleeting  vision  of  the  light 
which  shone  in  the  first  gleams  of  the  English  Reformation, — 
has  been  enabled  to  express  in  most  fitting  and  exalting  form; 
to  God's  great  glory  and  our  own  ineffable  benediction. — Prof. 
William  J.  Seabury. 

A  miserable  individualism  in  our  thoughts  of  holy  communion 
has  taken  the  place  of  the  rich  and  moving  thought  which  in 
ancient  days  was  so  prominent,  that  through  fellowship  in  the 
perfect  sacrifice  of  the  Son  of  Man  we  ourselves  become  that 
sacrifice.  That  is  to  say,  we  can  only  plead  His  passion  if 
we  are  prepared  to  enter  into  unity  of  spirit  and  life  with  Him 
who  offered  and  presents  it.  And  the  unity  of  spirit  and  life 
means  a  sacrificial  manner  of  living.  And  the  way  in  which 
the  sacrificial  manner  of  living  is  to  show  itself  is  in  real  brother- 
liness.  *  *  *  The  intimate  association,  at  the  beginning,  of 
the  holy  sacrament  of  Christ's  body  and  blood  with  the  fraternal 
meal,  which  at  first  preceded  it  and  afterwards  followed  it  at  a 


HOLY  COMMUNION  227 

later  hour,  of  course  kept  intensely  alive  its  social  meaning.  It 
was  the  sacrament  of  fraternity.  "Because  the  bread  is  one, 
we,  the  many,  are  one  body,"  wrote  St.  Paul. — Bishop  Gore. 

The  Lord's  Supper  or  Holy  Communion,  the  only 
Service  personally  instituted  by  our  Lord  and  con- 
taining the  few  liturgical  words  prescribed  by  Him, 
beside  the  Our  Father,  forms  together  with  the  Lord's 
Day  upon  which  it  has  been  from  the  beginning  per- 
formed, a  monumental  evidence  of  the  truth  of  our 
religion.  Sunday  and  this  service,  united,  furnish 
in  themselves  a  convincing  proof  of  the  substance 
of  St.  Paul's  message,  Jesus  and  the  Resurrection; 
that  the  Lord  is  risen  indeed,  and  our  faith  is  not 
vain.  In  a  way  they  can  be  likened  to  the  pile  of 
stones  ordered  to  be  taken  from  Jordan's  stream  and 
placed  on  its  bank  for  an  enduring  sign  of  Israel's 
merciful  deliverance  at  the  hand  of  God.  When  our 
children  ask,  What  mean  ye  by  this  Eucharist?  we 
should  know  how  to  answer  them. 

Throughout  the  first  four  Christian  centuries  this 
service  was  generally  known  by  this  name,  and  it  is 
not  difficult  to  see  the  reason  for  it.  Used  by  St.  Luke 
in  telling  the  story  of  the  first  Lord's  Supper,  used 
also  by  St.  Paul, — whose  travelling  companion  St.  Luke 
was, — when  apparently  referring  to  the  Communion, 
"Eucharist"  signifies  "thanksgiving-blessing."  It 
means  sacred  elements  blessed  in  joyful  and  grateful 
remembrance  of  a  Saviour  who,  crucified  for  our 
sake,  is  now  alive  for  evermore,  and  in  whose  life  we 
live. 

Thankful  joy  was  associated  with  the  Paschal  Bread 
and  Cup  themselves.  These,  like  the  shew  bread,  and 
the  bread  and  wine  and  slain  lambs  of  the  other  solemn 


228         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

feasts,  Messianic  feasts,  conveyed  the  thought  of 
dependence  upon  God  for  life  and  redemption,  of 
supping  with  God,  yes,  feeding  upon  the  very  Divine 
Life. 

There  was  gladness  in  the  thought  of  the  promised 
presence  of  the  glorified  Jesus  with  His  people.  He 
had  said  He  would  be  in  the  midst  of  them,  where 
two  or  three  only  were  gathered  together  in  His  name. 
He  promised  in  the  upper  room,  "I  will  come  to  you," 
and  surely  in  the  Eucharist  itself  more  than  in  any 
other  service  would  the  expectation  be  fulfilled. 

The  old  name  "mysteries"  survives  in  our  Prayer 
Book  service:  "He  hath  instituted  and  ordained  holy 
mysteries  as  pledges  of  his  love,  and  for  a  continual 
remembrance  of  his  death."  Now  as  we  have  noted 
already,  mysteries  in  New  Testament  language  are 
divine  secrets  at  least  half -told,  manifestations  of 
God's  power  and  goodness;  and  next  to  the  "great 
mystery  of  godliness,"  the  Son  of  God,  who  was 
manifested  in  the  flesh,  has  been  preached  among  the 
nations,  and  is  now  believed  on  in  the  world  far  and 
wide,  will  certainly  be  this  His  personal  manifestation, 
spiritually,  to  His  people,  in  a  service  ordained  by 
Himself  for  the  confirming  of  their  faith. 

"He  who  takes  from  us  our  mystery,"  wrote  Professor 
John  Duncan  of  Edinburgh,  "takes  from  us  our 
sacrament."  If  that  Presbyterian  divine,  eminent  for 
learning,  for  keen  insight  as  a  philosopher,  and  for 
simple  and  childlike  piety,  could  say  this  of  the  Com- 
munion; if  Goethe  could  write:  "In  the  Lord's  Supper 
earthly  lips  are  to  receive  a  divine  reality  embodied, 
and  under  the  form  of  an  earthly  nourishment  to  paT- 
take  of  a  heavenly";  and  if,  as  Palmer  informs  us, 


HOLY  COMMUNION  229 

in  the  Reformation  period  Oglethorpe  and  Ridley, 
Poynet,  Bucer,  and  Melanchthon,  all  like  the  Prayer 
Book  and  the  Homilies  maintained  a  certain  reality  of 
Presence  of  our  Lord  in  the  holy  Service,  we  need  none 
of  us  shrink  from  the  conception. 

Whoever  apprehends  the  Holy  Spirit's  relation  to 
Christ's  Things  will  be  rather  drawn  to  the  conception 
than  shrink  from  it.  In  this  as  much  as  in  any  other 
Gospel  verity  the  Spirit  truth  solves  difficulties  of 
the  intellect  and  of  the  spirit.  "The  letter  killeth, 
but  the  Spirit  giveth  life."  The  form  killeth  until  the 
Spirit  is  present  in  the  form  to  give  it  life.  We  must 
think  there  never  would  have  been  any  other  than  that 
one  institution-service  in  the  "upper  room"  but  for 
the  Event  of  Pentecost;  and  how  worthy  of  our  notice  it 
is  that  the  principal  subject  in  what  one  may  venture 
to  call  the  first  Communion  Address  ever  given  was  the 
Holy  Ghost! 

Nothing  was  ever  done,  is  ever  done,  in  heaven  or 
on  earth  without  the  co-operation  of  the  Third  Person. 
It  was  by  the  Creator-Spirit  that  man  was  made  "of 
the  dust"  yet  spiritual — in  the  divine  likeness — and  it  is 
appropriate  to  cite  here  Bishop  Gore's  remark,  that 
"from  the  days  when  the  Christian  Fathers  were  fight- 
ing their  great  battle  against  the  false  spirituality  of 
Gnosticism  it  has  been  the  sound  argument  of  Christian 
theologians  that  the  idea  of  sacraments; — the  idea  of 
spiritual  gifts  given  through  material  means, — is  of  a 
piece  with  the  whole  method  of  God  in  the  creation  and 
redemption  of  mankind." 

It  was  with  the  co-operation  of  the  divine  Spirit  that 
in  Him,  who  so  often  spoke  of  Himself  as  the  Son  of 
Man,  anew  human  will, — in  fact  a  new  filial  humanity, 


230         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

— was  first  created  and  then  developed  and  made  per- 
fect in  a  life  of  sonship,  obedient,  tempted,  and  suffering. 
"Through  the  Eternal  Spirit"  He,  as  the  Son  of  Man, 
offered  himself  without  blemish  unto  God"  (Heb. 
9:14).  It  is  implied  (Rom.  8:11)  that  not  without  Him 
was  Christ  raised  from  the  dead,  and  not  without 
Him  surely  was  Christ  as  Man  lifted  to  the  Father's 
throne  transfigured  and  glorified.  It  is  of  a  piece  with 
this  whole  divine  and  saving  process  and  work,  that 
with  the  personal  Spirit's  co-operation  our  Lord,  as  the 
very  fountain  and  source  of  the  new  world-filling 
humanity,  at  once  comes  again,  in  an  unseen  life-giving 
contact  with  our  race.  Will  there  be  a  more  dis- 
tinctly vital  point  of  contact  than  this  holy  Service  of 
His  own  appointing?  For  the  Christ  of  the  Eucharist 
is,  in  the  genuinely  catholic  conception  of  it,  and  there- 
fore in  our  venerable  Service,  not  the  dead  Christ,  but 
the  One  who  "is  alive  for  evermore."  The  bare, 
the  empty,  cross  on  our  altars  teaches  what  the  empty 
sepulchre  taught  on  the  first  Easter-Day. 

In  perfect  consonance  with  the  Spirit's  essential  and 
living  connection  with  our  Lord's  entire  redeeming 
work  for  us,  and  now  in  us, — with  the  fact  that  as 
Bishop  Odenheimer  said  in  his  Episcopal  charge  of 
1865,  "There  is  no  power  at  all  for  the  Church  in  these 
days  except  it  come  from  the  Holy  Ghost  by  whom 
Christ  is  present," — is  the  place  that  He,  the  Vicar 
of  Christ,  occupies  in  the  primitive  liturgies.  He  is 
in  truth  the  consecrator  of  every  Eucharist.  In  all  its 
parts,  for  all  engaged  in  it  and  to  be  benefited  by  it,  its 
vitality  and  efficacy  come  from  His  personal  ministra- 
tion. Whatever  our  idea  of  our  blessed  Saviour's 
presence  in  it  may  be,  whether,  as  Goethe  said,  the 


HOLY  COMMUNION  231 

sacrament  is  taken  "with  more  or  less  submission  to  the 
mystery,"  it  can  only  be  a  presence  mediated  by  the 
gracious  Spirit  who  loves  us  with  a  love  of  his  own. 

Now  in  the  Service  as  it  has  come  down  to  us  the 
"spiritual  references"  are  not  confined  to  some  few 
portions, — "Cleanse  the  thoughts  of  our  hearts  by 
the  inspiration  of  thy  Holy  Spirit"  in  the  opening 
Collect,  the  Invocation  (in  the  American  Use)  "bless 
and  sanctify,  with  thy  Word  and  Holy  Spirit,  these  thy 
gifts  and  creatures  of  bread  and  wine"; — they  pervade 
and  saturate  the  whole  service,  make  it  pre-eminently 
"spiritual"  and  real.  We  can  well  understand  Bishop 
Seabury's  personal  desire  to  fulfil  the  hope  of  the 
Scottish  Church  that  the  distinct  Invocation  of  the 
Spirit  would  prove  acceptable  to  the  Church  in  Amer- 
ica, and  his  earnest  words  in  a  letter  to  Bishop  White 
(June  29,  1789):  "The  efficacy  of  Baptism,  of  Con- 
firmation, of  Orders,  is  ascribed  to  the  Holy  Ghost, 
and  His  energy  is  implored  for  that  purpose;  and  why 
He  should  not  be  invoked  in  the  consecration  of  the 
Eucharist,  especially  as  all  the  old  Liturgies  are  full 
to  the  point,  I  cannot  conceive." 

We  can  understand  what  Bishop  John  Williams 
is  on  good  authority  reported  to  have  said  concerning 
the  gift  of  the  Invocation  to  our  own  Church,  through 
the  agency  of  the  Scottish  Church,  that  it  was  a  richer 
gift  even  than  that  of  the  Episcopate  itself.  Time  was 
when  the  Latin  Church  herself  offered  substantially  the 
same  prayer  for  the  Spirit,  beseeching  God  to  bless  the 
sacrifice  with  His  blessing  and  "suffuse  it  with  the  dew 
of  the  Holy  Ghost."  (Dr.  Gummey,  "  Consecration  of 
the  Eucharist,"  page  117.)  To  invoke  the  Spirit  thus 
is  to  make  the  service  which  commemorates  the  great 


232         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

Act  of  reconciliation  between  God  and  Humanity  in 
Christ  a  real  present  reconciliation  in  our  own  case. 
It  brings  the  peace  of  sonship  restored,  His  peace  who 
said,  "My  peace  I  leave  with  you, — give  unto  you," 
and  said  it  at  the  time  of  the  institution,  and  in  close 
connection  with  the  promise  of  the  Spirit. 

It  is  almost  immediately  after  this  thanksgiving- 
blessing  in  the  Spirit,  that  we  offer  ourselves  to  the 
Father  with,  by,  and  in  the  one  oblation  of  His  Son 
"once  offered,"  a  "reasonable,  holy,  and  living  sacri- 
fice." Who  but  the  Spirit,  whose  function  it  is  to  join 
us  body  and  soul  to  our  Redeemer  in  a  living  union, 
can  give  such  an  offering  of  ourselves  a  real  value 
spiritually? 

The  Eucharist  is  also  a  Communion.  It  is  both  the 
sign  and  the  means  of  union  between  man  and  God, 
and  between  man  and  man  in  God.  Individualism 
in  religion  is  never  more  "  miserable"  than  when  it 
hides  from  Christ's  people  this  communion-side  of 
the  eucharistic  truth,  helps  them  to  forget  the 
petition,  "that  they  all  may  be  one,"  in  the  Lord's 
wonderful  high-priestly  prayer  in  connection  with 
the  first  Eucharist,  —  helps  us  to  forget  also  that 
the  Consecrator  of  every  memorial  sacrifice  is  that 
Spirit  of  Unity  and  Fellowship,  whose  "chiefest  joy 
it  was,  not  to  create  the  world  of  nature  in  all  its  joy 
and  harmony,  but  to  build  the  edifice  of  a  social  life 
in  which  nature  was  to  find  its  crown  and  justifica- 
tion." The  words  are  Bishop  Gore's  and  he  adds: 
"Just  here  the  Spirit  has  found  His  chiefest  disappoint- 
ment"; quotes  from  the  Didache  (ix,  4):  "As  this 
Bread  was  once  scattered  upon  the  mountains,  and, 
having  been  gathered  together,  became  one,  so  let 


HOLY  COMMUNION  233 

Thy  Church  be  gathered  together  from  the  ends  of  the 
earth  into  Thy  Kingdom";  cites  from  Cyprian  (ep. 
73,  13):  "By  which  very  sacrament  (of  the  Bread) 
our  people  is  exhibited  as  made  one;  so  that  as  many 
grains  collected  into  one  and  ground  together  and 
mingled  make  one  loaf,  so  in  Christ,  who  is  the  heavenly 
loaf,  we  should  hold  that  there  is  one  body  to  which 
our  company  is  joined  and  united";  cites  from  Bishop 
Serapion's  Prayer  of  the  Oblation,  in  his  newly  dis- 
covered liturgy:  "For  as  this  bread  was  scattered 
upon  the  mountains,  and  having  been  gathered  together 
became  one,  so  also,  0  Lord,  gather  together  Thy 
holy  Church  from  every  race  and  every  country  and 
village  and  household,  and  make  it  a  living  catholic 
Church." 

The  Holy  Ghost  is  by  His  personal  divine  energy 
the  "leaven"  of  Christ's  Kingdom;  He  is  the 
great  Bread-maker  of  the  world,  in  this  sense  first, 
that  as  the  Creator-Spirit,  co-operating  with  the 
eternal  Son  in  the  toil  and  heat,  the  temptation  and 
suffering,  involved  in  the  Incarnation,  He  did  truly 
make  the  living  Bread  which  is  Christ  Himself,  and 
secondly,  that  in  Him  we  all  by  partaking  of  that 
living  source  of  a  new  and  holy  Humanity  become 
verily  one  with  it.  Call  this  poetry,  if  you  please; 
but  what  is  a  poem  (poiema  in  Greek)  but  a  making? 
God's  entire  creation,  man  included,  was  a  poem. 
And  without  that  making  of  a  new  manhood  in 
Christ,  in  the  fire  of  affliction,  all  Adam's  descendants 
had  been  lost,  because, — to  use  our  simple,  homely 
term, — the  first  batch  had  failed,  though  not  at  all 
bound  to  fail. 

And  in  the  present  period  of  the  Bread-making  the 


234         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

Bride  the  Church  is  allowed,  yes,  invited  to  have  a 
hand.  She  too  co-operates.  The  consecrating  action 
is  in  part  hers.  It  is  a  divine-human,  corporate,  action. 
Ours  is  a  book  of  Common  Prayer;  and  the  eucharistic 
act  is  an  act  of  the  great  priestly  Body.  The  A  mens 
in  the  Prayer  Book  continually  proclaim  that  the 
Church  is  congregational.  It  is  lamentable  when  the 
truth  of  lay-citizenship  and  lay-priesthood  is  let  slip 
by  our  people,  and  not  least  to  be  deplored  in  this 
holy  service  of  Communion.  There  is  no  Amen  in 
the  Prayer  Book  so  winged  and  powerful,  or  which 
should  mean  so  much  to  all  worshippers,  as  their  royal 
and  priestly  "Amen"  at  the  close  of  the  Consecration. 
None  merits  so  well  to  be  spoken  or  sung  by  all  with 
emphasis,  a  prolonged,  a  "three-fold,"  a  seven-fold 
Amen,  as  this  one. 

There  is  no  masonry  in  the  world  equal  to  the  uni- 
versal, divine,  masonry  of  the  Holy  Spirit  by  which 
He  joins  believers  as  "living  stones"  to  the  chief 
living  Stone,  Christ, — builds  us  up,  in  faith  and  unity  of 
mind  and  heart,  "a  spiritual  house,  to  offer  up  spiritual 
sacrifices  acceptable  to  God,  through  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord"  (1st  Pet.  2:5),  nor  is  there  an  instrument  in 
His  hand  so  choice  as  this  "our  sacrifice  of  praise  and 
thanksgiving,"  which  is  rendered  spiritual  and  potent 
through  His  indwelling  power,  in  answer  to  the  Church's 
prayer.  We  read  in  Cornford's  "History  of  the 
Prayer  Book"  that  the  people  used  in  the  early  days  to 
bring  contributions  of  loaves  and  wine  to  furnish  the 
holy  Table  with  the  elements  that  were  to  become  the 
symbol  and  vehicle  of  a  true  inward  feeding  upon 
Christ,  and  of  the  new  life  of  union  with  Him,  and 
with  each  other  in  Him.  It  was  a  happy  figure  of 


FATHERHOOD,  DIVINE  AND  HUMAN          235 

their  own  participation  in  the  consecrating  act,  and  also 
of  that  Pentecostal  miracle  of  universal  fellowship  and 
brotherhood,  in  the  Spirit  of  Fellowship,  which  were 
meant  never  to  cease,  but  more  and  more  to  prevail 
on  earth.  "A  thorough  Christian,"  says  Bishop 
Westcott,  "ought  to  have  the  Impossible  for  his  ideal." 
Is  it  not  the  mighty  Spirit,  whom  we  invoke  upon  our 
sacrifices  to  make  them  spiritual,  who  can  render  the 
impossible  possible,  and  who  will,  if  we  invoke  Him 
earnestly  enough,  one  day  bring  about  that  union  of 
Christendom  which  many  in  our  own  tune  frankly 
speak  of  as  an  iridescent  dream  ? 

The  opening  Collect,  with  its  petition  that  our 
hearts  may  be  cleansed  by  the  Spirit's  inspiration,  that 
we  may  perfectly  love  God,  Dean  Goulburn  terms  the 
noblest  of  all  the  Collects,  and  says  it  used  to  be  part 
of  a  special  service  invoking  the  grace  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  preparatory  to  the  Communion. 


FATHERHOOD,  DIVINE  AND  HUMAN] 
One  is  your  Father,  which  is  in  heaven. — Matt.  23  :  9. 
No  one  knoweth  the  Son,  but  the  Father,  neither  knoweth 
any  man  the  Father,  save  the  Son,  and  he  to  whomsoever  the 
Son  will  reveal  him.     Come  unto  me  all  ye  that  labour  and  are 
heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest. — Matt.  11  :  27,  28. 

When  he  was  yet  a  great  way  off,  his  father  saw  him,  and  had 
compassion,  and  ran,  and  fell  on  his  neck,  and  kissed  him.  And 
the  son  said,  Father,  I  have  sinned  against  heaven,  and  in  thy 
sight,  and  am  no  more  worthy  to  be  called  thy  Son. — Luke  15  : 
20,  21. 


236         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

Father,  the  hour  is  come;  glorify  thy  Son,  that  thy  Son  may 
also  glorify  thee. — John  17  :  1. 

Truly  our  fellowship  is  with  the  Father. — 1st  John  1  :  3. 

The  message  of  Fellowship  with  the  Father  in  Christ  which 
we  have  to  proclaim,  has  been  in  one  form  or  other  the  inspira- 
tion of  all  great  religious  movements.  And  it  comes  to  us  now 
in  a  more  intelligible  shape  than  hitherto,  enforced  by  fresh 
teachings  of  nature  and  history.  It  seems  to  me  that  which 
the  Spirit  is  shewing  to  us  in  many  ways.  It  is  in  a  peculiar 
sense  the  message  of  our  Church.  It  answers,  as  I  believe, 
to  the  half-articulate  desires  of  our  countrymen  at  the  present 
time.  It  is  the  inspiration  of  Foreign  Missions. — Bishop  West- 
cott. 

Only  when  we  make  a  point  of  looking  into  it  do  we 
discover  how  large  a  plare  the  truth  of  God's  Father- 
hood holds  in  our  Lord's  teaching.  It  is  the  principal 
motive  in  the  parable  which  Stier  called  the  crown 
and  pearl  of  all  His  parables,  that  of  the  Prodigal 
Son. 

When  asked  by  the  disciples  for  a  form  of  prayer, 
the  form  He  gives  begins,  "Our  Father."  The  most 
comforting  of  all  the  Comfortable  Words  He  ever 
spoke,  "Come  unto  me  all  ye  that  labour  and  are 
heavy  laden,"  are  more  comforting  even  than  we  are 
apt  to  think,  by  reason  of  their  connection  with  what 
He  has  just  been  saying  about  His  own  filial  relation 
to  God,  and  power  to  make  His  Fatherhood  known  to 
men.  It  is  claimed  that  more  sermons  have  been 
published  upon  that  text  than  upon  any  other  in  the 
Bible,  and  yet  in  few  of  them,  it  is  to  be  feared,  has 
the  connection  spoken  of  been  brought  out.  It  was 
Christ's  eternal  Sonship  which  had  made  the  yoke 
of  His  obedience  in  heaven  easy  from  everlasting, 
and  made  it  easy  to  Him  even  as  the  Son  of  Man. 


FATHERHOOD,  DIVINE  AND  HUMAN          237 

This  blessed  sonship  is  the  yoke  for  us,  and  if  we  will 
come  to  Him,  He  will  transfer  it  from  His  shoulders, 
from  His  heart,  to  our  hearts, — keeping,  however, 
His  share  in  it, — by  imparting  the  spirit  of  sonship. 
Learning  His  meekness  and  lowliness,  His  own  free 
and  loving  submission  as  a  Son,  we  shall  find  rest 
unto  our  souls. 

When  after  His  Resurrection  the  Lord  meets  Mary 
Magdalene,  and  sends  a  message  by  her  to  the  eleven, 
the  message  is,  Tell  them  I  "ascend  to  my  Father  and 
your  Father." 

Theological  statements  of  Gospel  truth  have  long 
been  more  or  less,  and  at  times  deplorably,  deficient 
respecting  the  Divine  Fatherhood.  Theories  of  the 
purpose  of  the  Incarnation,  and  the  meaning  of  the 
Atonement,  have  been  so  framed  as  to  dim  the  vision 
of  the  Father's  love.  New  England  Unitarianism 
was  in  great  measure  a  protest  against  these  prevailing 
harsh  and  unscriptural  conceptions.  Now  there  is  a 
widespread  reaction.  We  have  a  prominent  Pres- 
byterian layman  writing  in  "The  Fundamentals" 
of  the  Revelation  of  the  Fatherhood  of  God, 
saying:  "Think  how  rational  and  sweet  this  con- 
ception of  God  makes  obedience."  Mr.  Speer 
estimates  that  in  the  last  discourse  of  our  Lord,  in 
St.  John,  he  mentions  the  name  of  God  four  times 
while  speaking  of  the  Father  at  least  forty  times. 
He  ends: 

"Yes,  that  is  the  right  way  to  put  it  to-day.  Nowhere 
through  the  whole  universe  is  there  a  real  and  satisfying  God  for 
us,  except  the  God  Who  is  discovered  to  us  in  Jesus  Christ,  and 
Who  is  calling  to  us  to-day  by  the  lips  of  Christ,  'My  son,  O  my 
son,'  and  would  have  us  call  back  to  Him  if  we  be  true  men, '  My 
Father,  O  my  Father.'" 


238         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

The  Holy  Trinity,  in  itself  the  most  sublime  and 
impenetrable  of  the  truths  made  known  to  man,  as 
read,  so  to  speak,  through  the  mind  and  heart  of  our 
Lord,  especially  in  the  Fourth  Gospel,  is  seen  to  be 
most  practical  and  touching.  The  sacrifice  which 
reconciles  God  and  man  is  a  sacrifice  made  to  God 
as  a  Father.  Can  it  be  otherwise,  when  the  name 
Father  is  used  by  Christ  no  less  than  fifty  times  in 
His  communion  address  in  the  upper  room?  This 
includes  the  six  times  that  it  occurs  in  His  high-priestly 
prayer  of  Self-consecration,  beginning,  "Father,  the 
hour  is  come,  glorify  thy  Son,  that  thy  Son  also  may 
glorify  thee."  As  we  read  on,  "O  Father,  glorify 
thou  me  with  thine  own  self  with  the  glory  which  I 
had  with  thee  before  the  world  was,"  and  then,  "Holy 
Father,  keep  through  thine  own  name  those  whom 
thou  hast  given  me,  that  they  may  be  one  as  we  are," 
"Father,  I  will  that  they  may  be  with  me  where  I  am, 
that  they  may  see  my  glory,  *  *  *  thou  lovedst 
me  before  the  foundation  of  the  world";  and  once 
more,  "O  righteous  Father,  the  world  hath  not  known 
me,  but  I  have  known  thee,  *  *  *  I  have  declared 
unto  them  thy  name";  three  things  become  plain. 
First,  He  who  thus  offers  Himself  up  in  prayer  to  die 
for  men  must  be  both  Man  and  God.  Secondly,  the 
atoning  sacrifice  will  be  made  to  God  as  a  righteous 
Father,  and  the  sins  of  our  entire  race  are  weighing 
heavily  upon  the  filial  heart  of  Jesus  as  being  one  with 
us  through  His  birth  of  a  human  mother.  Thirdly,  this 
divine-human  reconciliation  will  introduce  us  into  a 
wonderful  fellowship  with  the  Father  through  His  Son. 

But   it  introduces  us  also,  by  the  very  language 
employed,  into  new  ideas  of  the  nature  of  the  God- 


FATHERHOOD,  DIVINE  AND  HUMAN          239 

head.  The  manifestation  of  the  Third  Person  at 
Pentecost  completes  the  revelation, — the  more  com- 
pletely in  that  for  nigh  two  thousand  years  it  has  been 
His  chief  business  to  bring  home  to  men's  hearts  this 
truth  of  the  divine  Fatherhood,  and  that  of  Jesus 
Christ's  self-offering  as  a  Son.  These  have  become 
to  millions  "an  old  story," — thank  God  and  His  Spirit, 
— and  what  can  be  added  now  that  is  new  concerning 
it?  This,  however,  can  and  ought  to  be  said  here,  that 
these  things  have  been  the  truth  and  message  of  the 
Prayer  Book  during  many  centuries,  and  have  been  a 
blessed  instrument  in  the  Spirit's  hand  to  draw  man- 
kind Godward. 

Turning  to  that  chief  of  Christian  services  insti- 
tuted on  the  Thursday  night  in  the  upper  room,  and 
counting  here  as  Mr.  Speer  counted  in  the  Fourth 
Gospel,  we  find  that  while  God  is  addressed  in  euchar- 
istic  prayer  and  praise  once  as  Lord,  and  five  times  as 
God,  He  is  addressed  as  Father,  including  the  case  of 
the  Lord's  Prayer,  seventeen  times,  only  so  addressed 
in  the  central,  all-important  part,  the  Consecration, 
except  once  where  it  reads,  "here  we  offer  and  pre- 
sent unto  thee,  O  Lord,  ourselves." 

It  can  perhaps  profit  us  to  note  also  that  the  most 
exalted,  and  to  us  exalting,  of  Christ's  words  have  not 
been  words  spoken  to  men,  but  words  spoken  to  God 
which  men  were  allowed  to  over-hear.  These  have 
revealed  the  Father's  love  for  the  Son,  and  Christ's 
love  as  a  Son,  both  divine  and  human,  for  the  Father. 
And  the  Spirit  completes  this  rich  revelation  of  love. 
To  employ  the  striking  word  of  inspiration,  the  Son 
glorifies  the  Father,  and-  the  Father  will  glorify  the 
Son,  while  the  Spirit  proceeding  forth  eternally  from 


240         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

the  Father  and,  like  the  Son,  subordinate,  will  glorify 
both.  Through  the  door  already  opened  in  that  upper 
room,  as  it  were  into  heaven,  we  behold  a  mighty  work 
going  on  for  us  men  and  for  our  salvation,  in  which 
the  three  divine  Persons,  each  in  His  way  co-operating 
with  the  Others,  are  engaged.  We  cannot  but  see  that, 
infinite  as  each  One  is,  there  is  somehow  going  to  be 
to  each  in  the  end  a  marvellous  "increase  of  glory," 
and  indeed  of  "endless  felicity," — the  felicity  of  love 
divinely  manifested  toward  humanity,  to  receive  also 
itself  a  rich  reward  through  our  grateful  response  of 
love  and  holy  service.  It  cannot  help  being  likewise 
true,  that  the  mutual  love  and  devotion  of  Father, 
Son,  and  Spirit  will  experience  an  increase  of  felicity 
in  connection  with  their  redeeming  work. 

Now  almost  if  not  quite  as  wonderful,  and  lying 
very  near  to  our  humanity,  is  a  truth  of  which  not 
enough  has  been  made  by  theology  and  Christian 
ethics.  It  is  the  truth,  that  man  being  created  in  the 
divine  likeness  corporately,  i.  e.,  as  a  family,  the  earthly 
fatherhood  is  a  figure, — more  than  that,  an  earthly 
imitation,  almost  a  repetition  on  the  finite  scale, — 
of  the  heavenly  Fatherhood.  In  this  there  lay  a  blessed 
divine  purpose.  The  earthly  fatherhood,  representing 
the  divine,  was  to  help  prepare  the  children  of  men, — 
also  children  of  God, — for  the  fruition  of  the  Divine, 
or  for  what  St.  John  calls  "our  fellowship  with  the 
Father." 

Undoubtedly  our  Lord's  word,  "Call  no  man  your 
father  upon  the  earth,  for  one  is  your  Father  which 
is  in  heaven"  (Matt.  23  :  9)  pointed  primarily  at  the 
Pharisees  who  loved  to  be  called  Rabbi,  or  Master, 
but  the  word  stood  for  authority,  from  the  authority 


FATHERHOOD,  DIVINE  AND  HUMAN          241 

of  a  king  down  to  that  of  a  chief  shepherd;  and  Christ 
would  have  us  think  of  our  heavenly  Father  as  the 
source  of  all  authority  everywhere.  Authority  and 
obedience  are  heavenly  principles.  The  harmony 
that  reigns  in  heaven  is  owing  to  the  obedience  that 
reigns  there.  And  subordination  there  does  not 
conflict  with  equality;  nor  does  it  here.  The  family 
life  on  earth,  in  so  far  as  it  is  Christianized,  in  other 
words,  risen  from  sin  and  morally  transfigured  and 
glorified,  in  the  Spirit,  by  Christ's  own  filial  love, 
will  always  be  something  like  a  heavenly  thing, 
simply  because  conformity  to  the  heavenly  prin- 
ciples is  sure  to  produce  harmony  and  joy  here  on 
earth. 

A  heavenly  radiance  much  needs  to  be  thrown  in 
this  age  upon  Authority,  divine  and  human.  It 
wants  to  be  " glorified,"  particularly  in  "free  America," 
which,  however,  is  not  really  free,  and  never  will  be 
free,  until  authority  is  glorified.  In  order  to  glorify 
it,  before  all  and  for  the  sake  of  all  in  the  home,  father- 
hood must  be  glorified.  And  while  Christian  mothers 
are  always  striving  to  make  it  honourable,  teaching 
the  children  to  obey  the  father,  they  cannot  succeed 
unless  fathers  belie  vein  the  heavenly  ideal,  and  glorify 
it  themselves  in  and  by  living  up  to  it.  It  will  be  an 
evil  day  for  the  home,  the  Church,  and  the  nation,  when 
no  Christian  fathers  shall  remain  to  exemplify  it. 

The  truth  of  the  saying  that  parents  are  in  the 
place  of  God  to  their  little  children  is  only  seen  clearly, 
and  the  immense  importance  of  it  seen,  in  the  light 
which  comes  to  us  from  the  Son's  words  regarding  the 
Fatherhood  on  high.  For  by  revering  and  obeying 
us  in  love  the  children  are  unconsciously  prepared, 

16 


242         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

not  merely  to  reverence  authority  in  the  state  and  in 
all  earthly  relationships,  but  also  to  "fear  God  and 
keep  His  commandments."  The  habit  of  respect  for 
earthly  parents  leads  on  and  up  to  a  "spirit  of  holy 
fear"  toward  God.  And  our  God,  be  it  observed, 
is  not  easy-going  and  indulgent.  Not  only  is  He  a 
righteous  God;  He  is  a  "righteous  Father."  He  loves 
righteousness,  and  He  loves  us  too  well  to  be  a  "good- 
natured"  God. 

It  is  one  mark  of  the  inspiration  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews  that  it  holds  in  such  even  balance  the  New 
Testament  truth  of  God's  Fatherhood  and  the  Old 
Testament  one  of  His  Creatorship.  He  is  our  Father 
Creator,  our  Father  Judge.  The  book  which  begins 
by  telling  how  God  "hath  spoken  unto  us  by  His  Son," 
comes  near  to  ending  with  the  word,  "Our  God  is  a 
consuming  fire."  And  the  same  two  elements  will 
always  be  found  combined  in  the  character  of  any 
father  fit  to  be  even  for  a  day  in  the  place  of  God  to 
his  'child.  Mother's  love  does  not,  nor  does  father's 
love,  suffice  for  the  right  training  of  the  child's  mind 
and  soul  and  spirit,  without  the  Christian  man's  strong, 
at  times  fiery,  indignation  against  all  untruth  and 
disobedience.  Indeed  it  is  to  be  doubted  whether 
any  other  person,  except  our  Father  in  heaven,  can  be 
so  grieved  and  offended,  so  shocked  and  angered  at 
sin,  as  a  "righteous"  human  father  will  be  at  sins 
committed  by  his  own  child.  In  the  eyes  of  God 
child-indulgence  must  be  nearly  if  not  quite  as  sinful 
as  self-indulgence. 

Children,  and  boys  especially,  need  to  be  much  with 
their  fathers.  The  paternal  companionship  and  influ- 
ence are  requisite  to  form  the  intellectual  and  moral 


FATHERHOOD,  DIVINE  AND  HUMAN          243 

fibre  of  Christian  manhood, — what  Tennyson  in  The 
Princess  terms 

"The  wrestling  thews  that  throw  the  world"; 

above  all  the  world  of  moral  weakness  and  sin.  Price 
Collier's  words  in  "England  and  the  English": 

"  An  Englishman  is  more  at  home  in  his  house  than  an  Amer- 
ican, first,  because  he  is  by  all  the  inmates  recognized  as  the 
absolute  master  there,  and  because  he  spends  more  of  his  time 
there; — Americans  staying  any  time  in  England,  whether  men 
or  women,  are  impressed  by  the  fact  that  it  is  the  country  of 
men;" — and  again,  "  fathers  and  sons,  uncles  and  nephews,  are 
much  more  at  home  with  one  another  than  with  us,  and  see 
much  more  of  one  another,  and  have  apparently  more  in  com- 
mon; in  games,  at  shooting  and  fishing,  the  youngsters  between 
twenty  and  thirty  not  only  mingle  with  but  are  boon  com- 
panions of  their  elders; — that  the  English  boy  is  more  a  man 
of  the  world  than  the  American  boy,  is  due  to  the  fact  that 
he  spends  so  much  of  his  time  with  his  elders," 

all  together  furnish  much  food  for  reflection  to  American 
fathers,  uncles,  and  godfathers.  Viewed  in  the  aspect 
which  concerns  us  here,  they  will  mean  much  to  men 
who  cherish  the  Christian  ideal  of  the  home,  and  who, 
accepting  the  truth  that  in  the  earthly  fatherhood  we 
behold  as  in  a  glass  darkly  (in  a  riddle)  the  wonder 
and  the  glory  of  the  Fatherhood  in  heaven,  desire  to 
walk  worthily  of  the  calling  wherewith  they  are  called 
to  glorify  it  and  make  it  a  shining  truth  indeed. 

It  will  be  seen  "darkly"  and  be  a  riddle,  wherever 
our  Christianity  does  not  make  it  shine,  the  earthly 
mirror  not  being  clear  and  clean;  in  other  words, 
being  like  those  mirrors  of  Corinthian  brass  St.  Paul 
had  in  mind,  Were  he  living  on  the  earth  now,  he 


244         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

would  surely  tell  us  that  our  modern  mirrors  so  far 
excel  the  ancient  ones  as  almost  to  rob  his  figure  of  its 
suggestiveness,  but  could  he  say  that  the  Christian 
family  life  in  Christ  in  our  day  is  an  equal  improve- 
ment upon  the  pagan  family  life  in  his  day?  As  long 
as  it  is  not,  man  will  continue  to  see  the  divine  Father- 
hood obscurely  and  distortedly,  if  he  discerns  it  at  all. 
It  is  a  serious  matter,  and  at  times  appears  to  grow 
more  serious.  Woman  may 

"make  herself  her  own, 
To  give  or  keep,  to  live  and  learn  and  be 
All  that  not  harms  distinctive  womanhood; 

she  may  at  last 

"set  herself  to  man, 
Like  perfect  music  unto  noble  words;" 

but  "the  statelier  Eden"  will  not  come  back  to  us, 
when 

"reign  the  world's  great  bridals  chaste  and  calm, 
When  springs  the  crowning  race  of  humankind," 

till  Christian  manhood  and  fatherhood  shall  have 
glorified  itself.  We  go  all  the  way  with  the  many  poets 
who  have  united  with  the  Holy  Scriptures  to  exalt 
woman,  and  bear  witness  to  the  power  of  her  influence; 
applaud  Tennyson's  lines: 

"Happy  he 

With  such  a  mother!     Faith  in  womankind 
Beats  with  his  blood,  and  trust  in  all  things  high 
Comes  easy  to  him,  and  though  he  trip  and  fall, 
He  shall  not  blind  his  soul  with  clay;" 

but  do  we  not  at  the  same  time  seem  to  stand  equally 
in  want  of  poets  who  shall  sing  of  the  other  side  of 


THE  SPIRIT  AND  CHRISTIAN  WOMANHOOD     245 

the  truth,  and  help  to  throw  the  combined  radiance  of 
Scripture,  and  of  enlightened  reason  and  conscience, 
around  the  earthly  fatherhood  which  is  quite  as 
"nobly  planned"  in  the  mind  and  heart  of  God? 


THE  SPIRIT  AND  CHRISTIAN   WOMANHOOD 

As  one  whom  his  mother  comforteth,  so  will  I  comfort  you. — 
Isa.  66  : 13. 

I  called  upon  God,  and  the  Spirit  of  Wisdom  came  unto  me. 
I  loved  her  above  health  and  beauty,  and  chose  to  have  her 
instead  of  light,  for  the  light  that  cometh  from  her  never  goeth 
out.— Book  of  Wisdom  7  :  7,  10,  11,  12. 

In  the  Rook  of  Wisdom,  Wisdom  is  identified  with  the  Holy 
Ghost.— Westcott. 

The  Jerusalem  which  is  above  is  free,  which  is  our  mother. — 
Gal.  4  :  26. 

In  the  Gospel  according  to  the  Hebrews  the  Saviour  Himself 
says,  "Just  now  my  Mother,  the  Holy  Spirit,  took  me  by  one 
of  my  hairs  and  bore  me  away  to  the  great  mountain  Thabor." — 
Westcott. 

We  are  to  despise  nothing  which  belongs  to  human  nature, 
which  is  the  likeness  and  image  of  God. — Kingsley. 

If  then  man,  woman,  and  child  together  image  God,  apart, 
it  would  seem,  they  must  image  the  three  divine  persons.     This 
is  as  much  as  to  say,  that  Woman  in  her  uufallen  state  was  the 
earthly  image  of  the  Holy  Spirit. — Elizabeth  M.  Jefferys. 
What  if  earth 

Be  but  the  shadow  of  heaven  and  things  therein 

Each  to  each  other  like,  more  than  on  earth  is  thought? 

— John  Milton. 

To  think  of  her  is  to  thank  God. — Henry  Esmond,  of  his 
"dear  lady". 


246         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

The  unit  of  humanity  as  created  in  the  divine  like- 
ness was  quickly  resolved  into  two,  and  then  into 
three.  Before  man  was  born  of  woman,  woman  taken 
from  his  side  was  born  of  man,  proceeding  forth  from 
him.  Having  been  thus  very  part  of  man,  in  becom- 
ing ever  again  his  companion  and  helpmate  she  has 
only  been  coming  to  herself,  and  developing  in  that 
sphere  of  helpful  companionship  which  surpasses  all 
other  friendship  and  intimacy.  In  holy  marriage 
we  become  one  again,  and  the  result  of  the  union  is 
fruitful  in  manifold  ways  for  ourselves  and  the  world. 
"This  is  the  Lord's  doing  and  it  is  marvellous  in  our 
eyes." 

And  "whoso  is  wise  will  ponder  these  things,  and 
they  shall  understand  the  loving-kindness  of  the  Lord." 
Whenever,  wherever  this  union  in  the  family  has  been 
entered  into  intelligently,  and  reverently,  in  the  fear 
of  God,  and  the  holy  vow  and  covenant  surely  per- 
formed and  kept,  not  only  have  love  and  peace  come, — 
not  only  has  the  earth  according  to  God's  holy  will 
and  purpose  been  replenished, — there  has  also  been 
great  mental  and  spiritual  fruitfulness  in  the  house- 
hold life  and  outside  of  it.  Had  the  marriage  state  been 
held  more  honorable  in  the  Church's  earlier  days, 
and  monasticism  not  contributed  to  keep  it  on  low 
ground,  the  development  of  woman's  mental  power, 
and  her  influence  for  good,  would  be  far  greater  than 
they  are  to-day.  As  it  is,  it  would  be  a  long  story  to 
tell  what  she  has  accomplished  in  literature  and  in 
education,  in  reform  and  missionary  work,  for  the 
uplifting  and  saving  of  the  race.  What  beautiful 
children  she  has  borne  that  were  not  of  the  flesh,  but 
of  the  brain  and  spirit, — poems  and  hymns,  novels 


THE  SPIRIT  AND  CHRISTIAN  WOMANHOOD     247 

and  essays,  of  high  ethical  order  and  merit;  what 
noble  movements  for  the  elevation  of  mankind  have 
originated  in  her  soul! 

Woman  makes  the  home,  and,  through  the  home, 
the  Church  and  the  state.  In  peopling  the  earth,  and 
bringing  up  the  young  in  the  stedfast  fear  and  love 
of  God,  she  peoples  Paradise  and  Heaven,  makes 
citizens  for  that  kingdom  and  "citizenship"  which, 
as  the  apostle  said,  "is  in  heaven"  (Phil.  3  :  20). 
In  all  these  things  she  is  as  truly  an  instrument  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  as  the  blessed  Mary  was  in  her 
wonderful,  all-surpassing  way.  In  the  Sunday-school, 
in  the  Mission  field,  and  wherever  she  has  seen  and 
accepted  her  calling  in  the  gentle,  obedient  spirit  of 
her  who  replied  to  the  angel  of  the  Annunciation, 
"Be  it  unto  me  according  to  thy  word,"  often 
have  those  not  given  in  marriage  known  the  blessed- 
ness of  fulfilling  spiritually  Isaiah's  word:  "More  are 
the  children  of  the  desolate  than  the  children  of  the 
married  wife,  saith  the  Lord." 

Now  the  higher  woman  rises  toward  the  intellectual 
and  spiritual  level  God  has  evidently  ordained  for 
her,  and  the  purer  and  nobler  become  our  ideals  in 
the  home  life,  and  the  richer  the  fruits  of  woman's 
thought  and  activity  in  Christ,  the  more  impossible  it 
becomes  not  to  think  of  her  as  in  some  sort  the  "earthly 
image"  of  the  loving  and  gracious  Spirit.  "There 
is,"  as  one  of  the  Fathers  said,  "no  sex  in  heaven." 
There,  as  our  Lord  said,  "they  neither  marry  nor  are 
given  in  marriage,  but  are  like  the  angels."  The 
older  we  get,  and  therefore,  God  helping  us,  the  nearer 
to  that  life  "in  the  resurrection,"  the  better  we  are 
fitted  to  realize  the  spiritual  nature  of  the  intercourse 


248         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

and  companionship  with  God  and  the  angels.  Never- 
theless if  in  our  thoughts  we  eliminate  the  physical 
and  earthly  features  of  this  present  life,  it  becomes 
difficult  not  to  see,  that  the  three-in-one  of  the  home 
are  in  some  sort  the  image  of  the  Three-in-One  on  the 
Throne  above.  The  thought  has  come  to  many, 
that  not  only  was  woman  intended  to  be  a  finely 
tempered  instrument  in  the  Hand  of  the  Spirit,  but 
also,  in  her  purest  and  noblest  state  and  condition, — 
as  "planned"  of  God, 

"To  warn,  to  comfort,  and  command," 

a  fitting  type  of  the  Third  Person  in  the  Trinity  Him- 
self. 

We  are  taught  that  God  created  man  in  His  own 
likeness?  Did  He  not  create  man's  other  half, — his 
companion  and  support, — whom,  being  "perfected," 
Lowell  calls  "Earth's  noblest  Thing,"  also  in  His  own 
likeness?  If  He  did  so,  then  is  there  in  God, — to 
express  it  in  the  impersonal  way, — a  side,  an  element, 
of  divine  perfection  corresponding  to  what  we  most 
admire  and  love  in  Christian  womanhood.  Then 
too  must  there  be  in  the  Universe  of  God,  and  above 
all  in  the  Church  of  the  redeemed,  a  sphere  of  action 
appropriate  to  these  particular  divine  and  heavenly 
characteristics.  Our  Lord  never  referred  to  the 
Spirit  otherwise  than  as  "He;"  "I  will  send  Him 
unto  you," — "He  will  guide  you  into  all  truth." 
Moreover,  as  a  Spirit  of  Power,  and  of  Judgment; 
who  will  convict  the  world  of  sin,  a  Fire  that  will  con- 
sume the  world  and  cleanse  the  heart  of  man,  we 
must  think  of  Him  differently.  Yet  other  scripture 
truths  and  metaphors  point  to  attributes  which  cor- 


THE  SPIRIT  AND  CHRISTIAN  WOMANHOOD     249 

respond  to  what  Goethe  suggested,  and  may,  with  his 
marvellous,  half-religious,  intuition,  have  distinctly 
intended,  by  "The  eternal  Feminine"  in  the  second 
and  more  serious  part  of  Faust.  It  is  the  mother- 
love  and  solicitude,  the  nourishing,  fostering  care, 
the  charm  of  which  none  ever  appreciated  more  highly 
than  did  Goethe,  and  perhaps  most  of  all  woman's 
power  to  draw  out,  and  bring  to  perfection,  the  best 
that  is  in  man,  intellectually  and  every  way. 

It  is  a  great  gift  in  woman,  and  blessed  are  the  women 
who  use  this  gift  for  high  spiritual  ends;  as  not  all  do. 
Now  when  we  hear  St.  Paul  speak  of  "the  Church 
which  is  the  mother  of  us  all,"  hear  St.  John  describe 
New  Jerusalem  as  coming  down  out  of  heaven  adorned 
as  a  bride  for  her  husband,  Christ,  and  presently  tell 
how  "the  Spirit  and  the  Bride  say,  Come,"  remem- 
ber that  the  Holy  Spirit  is  the  Breath,  the  Voice, 
the  Soul,  of  the  Church,  who  in  it  mothers  our  souls, — 
is  not  our  thought  justified  that  there  is  not  a  little 
in  the  personality  and  sphere  of  the  Spirit  which  an- 
swers to  woman's  attributes  and  duties  in  life?  She 
came  out  of  the  first  man  to  be  a  comfort  and  blessing 
to  him  and  to  his  offspring;  and  from  eternity  the 
Holy  Ghost  proceeds  forth  from  God  to  serve  the 
Father  and  the  Son,  and  to  comfort  and  inspire  us 
who  are  God's  children.  He  is  subordinate  to  the 
Father  and  the  Son,  being  sent  by  them  on  His  glorious 
Mission  to  the  world,  sent  to  take  of  the  Son's  things 
and  show  them  to  us,  and  to  impart  the  spirit  of  son- 
ship  to  mankind. 

In  this  subordinate  place  and  function  the  Spirit 
is,  nevertheless,  equal  in  essence  with  the  other  divine 
Persons.  We  give  Him,  with  the  Father  and  the  Son, 


250         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

"all  honour  and  glory,"  while  the  heavenly  choirs 
sing,  "Holy,  Holy,  Holy";  and  in  like  manner  is 
woman  great  in  her  sphere  of  obedience,  equal  to  man, 
while  submissive  to  his  will.  To  alter  slightly  the 
words  and  the  significance  of  the  classic  line  in  Romeo 
and  Juliet: 

"Her  bosom's  lord  sits  lightly  in  his  throne." 

She  is  like  the  Spirit  in  that  she  is  more  dearly  loved 
and  more  warmly  admired,  when  with  the  Spirit  she 
does  not  speak  of  herself.  "He  shall  glorify  me," 
said  Christ,  and  this  the  Paraclete  has  been  doing 
during  nineteen  centuries;  and  for  this  it  is  that  we 
worship  Him,  and  sing  some  of  the  most  beautiful 
hymns  that  are  sung  in  His  honour. 

If  now  it  is  true,  that  in  the  tender  solicitude  and 
the  devotion  of  the  nobly-planned  and  perfect  woman, 
— as  also  in  her  proper  sphere  in  the  home  and  national 
life, — a  "likeness"  to  the  Holy  Spirit  is  recognizable, 
is  it  not  a  truth  well  worth  holding  up  before  her? 
Will  it  not  tend  to  inspire  her  with  a  well-nigh  infinite 
respect  for  her  womanhood,  and  with  reverent  affection 
for  that  state  of  life  for  which  it  hath  pleased  God 
to  prepare  her?  Should  it  not  lead  her  to  think  often 
of  the  gracious  Spirit,  and  to  invoke  Him  in  the  midst 
of  trying  and  difficult  tasks, — help  her  to  realize  also 
how  far  she  falls,  when  she  falls,  from  that  circle 
before  the  Throne  where  the  mystic  lamps  of  the 
Spirit  burn? 

On  the  other  hand,  this  truth  will  tend  to  bring  closer 
to  every  heart, — and  not  least  when  we  ourselves 
have  experienced  gentle  ministrations  in  our  homes, — 
the  tender  love  of  the  Spirit  Himself.  If  it  was  a 


SEED,  FRUIT,  GRACE  AND  CHRIST'S  MANHOOD  251 

shame  to  us  to  grieve  our  mother,  what  is  it  to  grieve 
the  Holy  Spirit  of  God?  We  shall  perceive  how  small 
need  there  has  been  in  any  age  of  the  Christian  Church 
to  look  to  the  mother  of  our  Lord,  or  indeed  to  any 
other  departed  saint,  for  sympathy  and  aid  in  hours 
of  trouble  and  sorrow.  No  woman's  heart  was  ever 
so  compassionate  as  the  heart  of  Him  who  bore  our 
sorrows,  and  was  tempted  like  as  we  are,  or,  again, 
the  heart  of  this  Other  Comforter,  whom  He  has 
sent  to  us,  and  who  is  with  us  and  in  us  to  stay,  till 
time  and  trouble  shall  end. 


SEED,  FRUIT,  GRACE,  AND  THE   NEW  HUMANITY 
IN  CHRIST 

Is  the  seed  yet  in  the  barn? — Haggai  2  :  19. 

And  to  thy  seed,  which  is  Christ. — Gal.  3  :  16. 

Begotten  again,  not  of  corruptible  seed,  but  of  incorruptible, 
through  the  word  of  God,  which  liveth  and  abideth. — 
1st  Pet.  1  :23. 

He  that  soweth  unto  the  Spirit  shall  of  the  Spirit  reap  eternal 
life.— Gal.  6  :  8. 

Ye  who  would  be  justified  by  the  law  are  fallen  away  from 
grace. — Gal.  5  :  4. 

Grow  in  grace.— 2d  Pet.  3  :  18. 

By  grace  are  ye  saved  through  faith;  and  that  not  of  your- 
selves: it  is  the  gift  of  God. — Eph.  2  :  8. 

Ye  all  are  one  man  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  if  ye  are  Christ's,  then 
are  ye  Abraham's  seed,  heirs  according  to  the  promise. — 
Gal.  3  :  28,  29. 


252         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

Without  Christ  the  Christian  people  have  no  existence.  He 
is  the  source  of  their  life, — to  allow  themselves  to  be  circumcised, 
was  then  and  there  to  be  shut  out  from  Christ. — Bishop  Lightfoot. 

Injustice  was  inadvertently  done  to  the  strength  of 
the  argument  in  Chapter  IV,  when  the  service  for  the 
Thirteenth  Sunday  was  there  said  to  contain  no  distinct 
reference  to  the  Holy  Spirit.  For  the  passage  from 
Galatians  beginning,  "To  Abraham  and  his  seed  were 
the  promises  made,"  stands  in  the  closest  and  most 
vital  relation  possible  with  the  words  of  the  next  verse 
but  one  before :  "that  upon  the  Gentiles  might  come  the 
blessing  of  Abraham  in  Christ  Jesus;  that  we  might 
receive  the  promise  of  the  Spirit  through  faith."  The 
great  leading  thought  of  Galatians,  that  the  faith 
which  works  by  our  filial  love  in  Christ,  and  which  the 
Spirit  creates  in  us,  making  each  one  of  us  "a  new 
creation"  in  the  risen  and  glorified  Son  of  Man,  is 
inseparably  bound  up  with  the  whole  striking  portion 
regarding  our  Lord  and  Saviour  as  Seed. 

But  this  same  truth  is  the  truth  of  all  three  Sundays, 
the  Thirteenth,  Fourteenth,  and  Fifteenth.  Whether 
the  Spirit  is  actually  named  or  not,  and  whether  the 
blessed  new  life  in  mankind  is  spoken  of  as  seed,  or 
fruit  of  the  Spirit,  or  the  new  creature  (creation)  by 
which,  as  a  rule  (a  canon, — a  carpenter's  or  surveyor's 
line)  "as  many  as"  shall  walk  receive  their  great 
Apostle's  blessing  of  peace  as  a  new  and  wider  Israel 
of  God,  it  always  signifies  the  one  thing.  And  so  it  is 
with  the  word  "grace,"  which  occurs  in  the  same  fourth 
chapter  with  the  injunctions  to  "walk  in  the  Spirit" 
and  "be  led  by  the  Spirit."  Grace  in  the  portion  "Ye 
are  severed  from  Christ,  ye  who  would  be  justified  by 
the  law;  ye  are  fallen  away  from  grace";  what  avails 


SEED,  FRUIT,  GRACE  AND   CHRIST'S  MANHOOD  253 

in  Christ  is  "faith  working  through  love;"  would  that 
they  who  unsettle  you  by  talking  of  circumcision 
"would  even  cut  themselves  off;"  stands  for  just  what 
freedom,  and  seed  and  the  new  creation  do,  namely, 
that  new  humanity  which  our  glorified  Lord  now  is,  and 
which  the  Blessed  Spirit  brings  to  us.  As  Bishop 
Lightfoot  said,  "without  Christ  the  Christian  people 
have  no  existence."  For  what  some  one  has  said, 
We  must  lose  Christ  as  man  to  regain  Him  as  God,  does 
not  cover  the  whole  truth  of  the  matter.  We  lost  Him 
as  the  visible,  self-limited,  and  humbled  Christ,  that  we 
might  by  His  ever  present  powerful  Spirit  have  Him 
again  in  us,  a  source  of  inner  moral  and  spiritual  power, 
the  Second  Adam,  reproducing  Himself  in  countless 
millions  of  the  children  of  men.  Some  one  else  has 
said,  that  to  paint  like  Raphael  one  must  be  Raphael. 
Now  Christ  in  us  by  His  Spirit  is,  so  to  say,  Raphael 
in  us.  He  is  Himself  the  soul  and  the  genius  of  the  new 
humanity.  If  we  do  not  see  and  feel  this  yet,  we  shall 
see  and  feel  it  one  day,  and  shall  love  and  adore  Him 
for  it  through  all  eternity. 

The  early  part  of  the  Trinity  Season,  and  the  latter 
part  too,  is  a  seed-sowing  season,  a  time  when  the 
phrase  "Thy  seed,  which  is  Christ"  and  the  words 
later  on,  suggestive  of  a  world-filling  Christ-life, 
"There  can  be  neither  Jew  nor  Greek,  there  can  be 
neither  bond  nor  free:  ye  all  are  one  man  in  Christ," 
will  have  a  rich  significance  for  us.  And  so  with  the 
word  in  Romans  9:8,  "The  children  of  the  promise 
are  reckoned  for  a  seed,"  that  in  Isaiah  65  : 23, 
"They  are  the  seed  of  the  blessed  of  the  Lord,"  but 
especially  the  words  in  Psalm  126  : 6,  7,  "Though 
he  goeth  on  his  way  weeping,  bearing  forth  the 


254         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

seed,  he  shall  come  again  bringing  his  sheaves  with 
him." 

The  Spirit  is  Himself  the  great  Sower  of  precious 
seed  in  the  world  of  Nature  and  the  world  of  Grace 
alike.  The  farmers,  and  the  spiritual  husbandmen,  all 
the  good  people  in  Christian  homes  and  schools  and 
Sunday  Schools  who  in  any  sense  obey  the  injunction, 
"in  the  morning  sow  thy  seed,  and  in  the  evening 
withhold  not  thine  hand,"  are  sowing  in  the  Spirit.' 
And  what  cheers  us  most  to  remember,  is  that  "he 
that  soweth  unto  the  Spirit  shall  of  the  Spirit  reap 
eternal  life"  (Gal.  6:8).  He  is  the  Life-giver,  and  that 
which  He  sows  spiritually,  whether  in  Word  or  Sacra- 
ment, by  whatever  means,  or  without  means,  is  the 
Christ-life.  Godet,  speaking  of  the  Apostle's  phrase, 
which  he  terms  "strange,"  and  is  almost  a  paradox,— 
"the  law  of  the  Spirit  otlife"  asks,  But  is  it  possible 
to  sever  these  two  relations?  If  the  Spirit  produces 
spiritual  life  in  the  believer's  heart,  is  it  not  because  He 
is  the  breath  of  the  living  and  glorified  Christ?  He 
takes  of  that  which  belongs  to  Jesus,  John  16  :  15,  and 
communicates  it  to  us." 

Now  that  which  characterizes  a  seed  is,  that  it  con- 
tains the  principle  of  life.  There  is  the  smallest  pos- 
sible weight  and  bulk  to  it.  The  farmer  "goeth  forth 
bearing"  a  small  bag  of  seed  on  his  shoulder,  whose 
fruit  in  a  few  weeks  will  require  strong  arms  many, 
with  horses  and  wagons  too,  to  bring  it  into  the  barn. 
In  fact,  since  that  which  he  sows  is  not  quickened 
except  it  die,  when  we  eliminate  mentally  the  part  which 
does  die,  the  really  "precious"  content  of  the  bag 
carried  out  weighed  nothing.  It  was  visible  only  to 
God  who  had  created  it,  and  sustained  it  in  life,  and 


SEED,  FRUIT,  GRACE  AND  CHRIST'S  MANHOOD  255 

enabled  it  to  multiply  almost  infinitely.  To  me  it 
seems  that  this  fact  is  richly  suggestive  in  the  spiritual 
way,  and  not  least  as  bearing  on  the  greatest  and  most 
precious  of  all  divine  verities  which  concern  us,  the 
heavenly  seed  which  is  Christ,  the  last  Adam,  who  has 
become  a  life-giving  spirit  for  OUT  redeemed  race. 
"The  second  man  is  of  heaven,"  and  he  is  forever  man, 
and  throughout  the  ages  His  Spirit  will  communicate 
this  divine-humanity,  spiritual  substance  or  essence,  to 
us  who  have  thrown  OUT  hearts  open  to  it  by  faith. 

Now  then  keeping  this  truth,  of  the  Christ-life  a  seed, 
hi  mind, — which,  since  all  life,  though  plain  fact,  is 
as  yet  unfathomable  to  our  intellect,  is  scarcely  more 
unfathomable  than  a  grain  of  wheat,  or  the  "flower  in 
the  crannied  wall," — let  us  think  of  the  other  very 
different  term  "grace,"  and  the  lesson  St.  Paul  teaches 
concerning  it.  This  lesson  is  that  all  those  who,  under- 
going circumcision,  would  become  righteous  before  God 
hi  living  faithful  to  the  Jewish  law,  mutilate  them- 
selves and  spiritually  cut  themselves  off  from  the  New 
Testament  privileges  in  Christ.  They  are  no  longer  in 
the  Spirit,  no  longer  by  faith  wait  in  hope,  as  Christians 
do,  for  the  righteousness  which  will  come  by  faith.  It 
will  be  not  a  formal  and  imputed  righteousness  only 
but  also  a  real  personal  righteousness,  because  faith,  in 
the  Spirit,  worketh  through  love.  This  is  freedom, 
because  the  Son  makes  us  free.  It  is  a  true,  inward, 
life,  because  whoso  hath  the  Son  hath  life.  Do  we 
not  read  in  1st  Thes.  1  :  3  of  the  work  of  faith,  and 
labour  of  love,  and  patience  of  hope  in  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ?  Does  not  St.  James  say  a  Christian  can 
declare,  "  I  by  my  works  will  shew  thee  my  faith"? 

"Ye  are  severed  from  Christ,"  writes  the  Apostle: 


256         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

ye  are  fallen  away  from  this  sphere  of  grace  in  the 
Spirit.  He  does  not  mean  that  they  are  fallen  from 
God's  favour,  as  though  they  had  committed  this  or 
that  grievous  sin.  It  is  something  different,  and  far 
more  dangerous  to  the  soul.  They  have  banished 
themselves, — are  like  Hagar  and  her  son;  not  "out  in 
the  cold  "  as  we  express  it,  but  out  in  the  heat  and  dry- 
ness  and  barrenness  of  a  desert  where  nothing  will  grow. 
One  must  remain  in  Christ  to  grow,  for  Christ  is  life. 
His  Spirit  is  life.  It  is  a  sphere  in  which  we  pray  for 
and  fully  expect  the  increase  of  faith  and  hope  and 
love; — and  it  can  scarcely  be  a  mere  coincidence  that 
this  increase  is  the  subject  of  the  Collect  for  the  Four- 
teenth Sunday. 

How  distinctly  the  identity  comes  out  between  Christ 
as  a  Seed  and  Christ  as  Grace,  where  the  word  wait  is 
heard:  "We  through  the  Spirit  by  faith  wait  for  the 
hope  of  righteousness"!  It  is  in  connection  with  the 
Christ  life  in  the  Spirit  that  in  Romans  8  : 25  it  is  said, 
"If  we  hope  for  that  which  we  see  not,  then  do  we  with 
patience  wait  for  it."  Is  it  not  this  way  with  the 
farmers?  St.  James,  who  evidently  loved  the  outdoor 
life  and  watched  farmers  at  their  work,  wrote  (5  :  7), 
"Behold,  the  husbandman  waiteth  for  the  precious  fruit 
of  the  earth,  being  patient  over  it,  until  it  receive  the 
early  and  the  latter  rain."  Farmers  need  to  be,  and 
generally  are,  patient,  because  they  have  to  deal  with 
seed,  and  life.  They  sow,  and  wait,  cultivate  and 
wait,  pray  for  rain,  some  of  them,  and  wait.  The 
Holy  Spirit  sows  the  Christ-seed  in  the  hearts  of  men 
and  children  and  cultivates  it  and  waits  with  a  loving, 
divine,  patience. 

It  seems  to  me  that,  quite  apart  from  any  question 


SEED,  FRUIT,  GRACE  AND  CHRIST'S  MANHOOD  257 

of  the  Jewish  law,  there  is  great  need  to  tell  men  in  our 
day,  in  every  day,  what  a  wonderful  thing  of  inward 
life  and  growth  the  new  humanity  is,  in  God's  eternal 
Son  and  in  His  Pentecostal  Spirit;  tell  them  often  what 
it  means  to  fall  away  from  grace,  and  earnestly  beg 
them  not  to  do  it,  but  to  stay  by  Christ  and  in  Christ, 
our  only  "hope  of  glory,"  of  liberty,  of  moral  fruitful- 
ness,  of  spiritual  comfort  and  joy.  Who  of  us  all  is  not 
liable  every  day  to  fall  out  of  Christ  and  His  grace,  and 
in  this  way  be  lost,  as  men  fall  out  of  a  ship  that  is 
bearing  them  safely  over  deep  waters?  We  fall  out 
of  grace  when  we  make  efforts  to  be  good,  and  please 
God  or  man,  without  prayer  and  the  other  divine  helps, 
and  again  when  praying  and  striving  we  do  not  wait  for 
the  spiritual  life  hi  us  to  grow,  and  bear  fruit,  wait 
patiently  though  eagerly  for  our  entire  redemption  from 
the  power  of  sin  and  evil  habit. 

As  parents  and  teachers,  as  priests  and  ministers  of 
Christ,  soul-shepherds  and  farmers  and  vine-dressers, 
bound  to  interpret  by  our  own  teaching  and  life  the 
Spirit's  patient  method  of  culture,  we  fall  away  from 
the  truth  and  method  of  grace,  when  we  do  not  wait 
patiently  for  the  growth  and  development  of  the  free, 
natural,  Christ-life  in  others,  most  of  all  when  we 
preach  morality,  or  Old  Testament  righteousness, — 
preach  the  Church  in  an  outward  and  formal  way, 
saying  "the  Church  bids  us  do  thus  and  so,"  instead  of 
preaching  Christ  in  the  Church,  the  very  Soul  and  Life 
of  righteousness.  Nothing  in  the  Church  "  is  anything 
apart  from  Christ"  and  our  race's  new  "existence" 
in  Him, — the  new  creation.  We  need  all  to  think 
often  upon  what  the  Spirit  by  His  Apostle  saith  to  the 
Churches,  "As  many  as  shall  walk  by  this  canon 

17 


258         THE  TRINITY  SEASON  —  (CONTINUED) 


peace  be  upon  them  and  upon  the  Israel 
of  God,"  and  "The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  be 
with  your  spirit,  brethren.  Amen." 


CONFESSION  AND  ABSOLUTION 

Whoso  confesseth  and  forsaketh  (his  sins)  shall  have 
mercy.— Ps.  18  :  13. 

If  we  confess  our  sins,  God  is  faithful  and  just  to  forgive  us 
our  sins. — 1st  John  1  :  9. 

That  repentance  and  remission  of  sins  should  be  preached 
hi  his  name  among  all  nations. — Luke  24  :  47. 

He  breathed  on  them,  and  saith  unto  them,  Receive  ye  the 
Holy  Ghost:  Whose  soever  sins  ye  remit,  they  are  remitted 
unto  them ;  and  whose  soever  sins  ye  retain,  they  are  retained. — 
John  20  :  22. 

Confess  your  faults  one  to  another,  and  pray  one  for  another, 
that  ye  may  be  healed. — James  5  :  16. 

There  is  no  evidence  from  either  allusions  in  the  fathers,  or 
the  testimony  of  historians,  that  the  primitive  Church  had  any 
conception  of  private  confession  and  individual  priestly  absolu- 
tion as  an  element  of  Christian  life  or  discipline  for  all  its 
members.  *  *  *  In  the  Reformation  time  the  whole  matter 
was  transferred  to  the  daily  services,  and  in  presenting  it  there 
the  position  of  the  Church  of  England  is  declared  with  definite  and 
unmistakable  clearness. — Dr.  Garrison. 

In  itself,  so  far  as  the  movement  of  grace  is  concerned,  the 
Absolution  is  the  same,  whether  public  or  private.  The  differ- 
ence lies  in  the  method  of  preparing  to  receive  it.  If  souls  are 
able  to  grasp  it  for  themselves  as  firmly,  it  is  as  valid  and  full 
when  uttered  in  a  general  formula  to  a  thousand  together  as  when 
uttered  to  them  one  by  one.  It  is  to  be  feared  that  the  public 
Absolutions  are  as  a  rule  more  listlessly  received  than  the  private. 


CONFESSION  AND  ABSOLUTION  259 

The  Church  vindicates  for  her  children  the  liberty  with  which 
Christ  has  set  us  free.  *  *  *  If  conscience  tells  them  that  a 
full  and  explicit  confession  before  God  alone,  joined  with  the 
general  confession  in  the  public  service,  would  be  more  beneficial 
to  their  advance  in  holiness  than  private  confession,  no  man  may 
compel  them  to  the  latter.  If  conscience  tells  them  that  a 
private  confession  would  be  beneficial,  no  man  may  dare  to 
forbid  it  them.  Upon  the  doctrinal  question,  indeed,  the  English 
Church  leaves  no  doubt  whatever:  but  the  practical  question  is 
left  to  be  decided  by  each  soul  separately. — Dr.  Mason. 

Nothing  can  appear  plainer  than  that  the  Church, 
which  Christ  appointed  to  be  the  Spirit-bearing  Body 
to  our  race,  He  willed  also  to  be  a  Forgiveness-bearing 
Body.  Only  God  can  send  the  Spirit,  God  only  can 
forgive  sin,  but  He  has  given  to  the  Son  as  Son  of  Man 
the  right  and  the  power  to  do  both,  and  the  Son  after 
His  mighty  resurrection  passed  both  privileges,  in  a 
way,  to  the  Church  as  His  Bride,  and  as  also  being  in  a 
very  real  sense  divine-human,  in  Him.  John  20:22 
makes  this  clear.  The  gift  of  the  Spirit,  and  the  gift 
of  power  to  remit  sins  are  received  together,  in  one  mo- 
ment, one  act,  one  breath,  "Receive  ye  the  Holy  Ghost" 
and  "receive,"  He  seems  to  add,  "this  authority  to 
forgive  in  my  Name,  and  in  virtue  of  my  Deed  of 
Sacrifice  and  my  Victory  in  your  name." 

It  appears  also  by  a  careful  study  of  passages 
bearing  on  the  event,  that  both  gifts  were  conferred 
not  merely  on  the  twelve,  or  rather  ten,  but  on  the 
congregation  of  believers.  It  is  good  to  know  and  to 
think  of  this  often.  All  confirmed,  if  not  all  baptized, 
people  share  the  benefit  and  the  responsibility  of  these 
two  great  privileges.  It  gives  a  rich  significance  to 
St.  James'  inj unction,  "Confess  your  faults  one  to 
another  and  pray  one  for  another."  But  it  means 


260         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

most  of  all  to  a  Churchman, — or  can  and  ought  to 
mean  it, — in  connection  with  the  solemn  transaction 
which  takes  place  almost  in  the  first  moments  of  our 
service,  on  Sundays  or  on  weekdays,  at  the  Eucharist 
or  at  Morning  or  Evening  Prayer. 

The  purpose  in  making  this  heavenly-earthly  trans- 
action the  theme  of  one  of  these  sections  is  distinctly 
practical.  According  to  this  Church's  view  of  Con- 
fession and  Absolution,  which  many  of  us  are  convinced 
is  the  catholic  one, — the  view  of  the  early  Church, — 
this  open,  congregational  act,  in  which  the  Church  as  a 
whole  acts  for  Christ,  in  the  Spirit,  as  "a  royal  priest- 
hood," in  prayer,  and  faith,  and  mutual  sympathy, 
dispensing,  in  Christ's  name,  and  through  her  sacred 
appointed  ministry,  the  gift  of  pardon  which  her  Lord 
alone  obtained  for  her,  is  indeed  solemn  and  most  real. 

There  is  surely  a  great  need  of  presenting  the  subject 
clearly  and  definitely.  Whether  one  calls  the  action 
sacramental  or  not,  whether  or  not  one  believes  the 
general  and  open  way  which  our  own  Church  without 
doubt  prefers  and  would  commend  to  us,  it  is  plain 
that  the  great  majority  of  her  children  do  believe  in 
and  choose  it,  and  it  is  a  matter  of  serious  importance 
that  they  should  be  assisted  to  "grasp  it  as  firmly" 
as  possible  "for  themselves,"  that  it  may  be  "full  and 
valid"  to  them.  Many  will  cease  to  receive  the  benefit 
"listlessly"  when  taught  what  the  benefit  is.  The 
absolution  is  no  mere  statement  of  God's  will  to  forgive, 
but  a  gift  of  forgiveness,  where  there  is  repentance  and  a 
firm  intention  to  forsake  sin.  If  those  of  our  people 
who  would  rather  confess  to  God  than  to  man,  whether 
to  a  mother  or  a  sister,  a  wife,  an  intimate  friend,  or  a 
priest,  were  but  taught  and  urged  to  do  it  thoroughly 


CONFESSION  AND  ABSOLUTION  261 

and  sincerely, — keeping  nothing  back,  naming  to  God, 
before  Communion,  or  before  an  afternoon  service  of 
prayer,  secret  faults  or  besetting  sins,  as  particularly 
as  they  would  tell  a  priest  or  a  dear  friend, — our 
General  Confession  would  have  a  solemn  reality,  and 
the  Absolution  bring  a  blessing  which  now  it  is  to  be 
feared  they  often  do  not. 

Our  people  need  to  be  instructed  before  all  to  invoke, 
upon  their  preparation  and  upon  their  confession,  the 
same  convicting  and  enlightening  Spirit  whom  our 
Lord  "breathed  on"  His  Church  in  the  hour  when  He 
made  it  a  Church  carrying,  as  it  were,  forgiveness  in 
His  name  to  all  mankind.  Many  need  to  be  told 
that  self-examination  amounts  to  little  without  the 
Spirit,  that  He  must  examine  us  and  try  our  reins  and 
our  heart,  or  Confessions,  and  Communions  also,  will 
do  us  little  good.  They  need  reminding  that  in  our 
Confession  the  things  "we  have  not  done  and  which  we 
ought  to  have  done"  are  those  first  mentioned,  and  are 
by  no  means  the  least  important.  We  who  are  too 
well  brought  up  and  well  environed  to  be  in  danger 
of  great  sins  of  commission,  can  easily  displease  our 
heavenly  Father  every  day,  if  not  every  hour,  by  our 
sins  of  omission.  Idle  hours,  idle  words,  idle  thoughts, 
— education,  good  family,  personal  attraction,  and 
wealth,  used  only  for  our  own  advantage, — these  are 
things  which  are  going  to  make  the  Intermediate  State 
much  less  of  a  Paradise  to  them  than  thousands  of 
Christians  now  imagine. 

How  many  think  that  because  they  possess  but  the 
"one  talent,"  that  is  to  say,  are  only  moderately  endowed 
mentally,  moderately  well  off,  not  "talented,"  they 
need  feel  only  slightly  responsible  for  mankind  and 


262         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

for  God's  Kingdom !  These  are  the  average,  every-day 
people,  just  those  "common  folk"  of  whom  Lincoln 
said,  "God  must  love  them,  because  He  has  made  so 
many  of  them."  He  does  love  and  care  for  them;  but 
He  approves  and  cannot  help  loving  them  more,  when 
they  put  out  to  interest  for  Him  and  His  world,  the 
single  talent's  worth  of  wit,  of  money,  of  social  influence, 
of  whatever  capacity,  He  has  given  them.  The  great 
majority  of  us,  citizens,  soldiers,  Christians,  are  of 
the  one-talent  sort;  and  God  is  much  more  than  we 
are  apt  to  suppose  depending  on  us,  each  in  our  humble 
way  and  narrow  round  of  duty  to  labour  and  contend 
for  His  Kingdom  of  truth,  of  purity  and  of  holiness  in 
this  world:  and  if  we  indeed  strive  to  do  it,  every  day 
reporting  to  Him  to  be  inspected,  reproved,  and 
improved,  will  there  not  be  far  less  of  teaching  and  cor- 
rection necessary  in  that  future  State  of  waiting  and  of 
discipline,  in  the  way  to  which  all  are  going? 

Thackeray,  in  "George  the  Third,"  quotes  the  verses, 
— "the  sacred  verses," — which  Dr.  Johnson  wrote 
on  the  death  of  his  humble  friend,  Levett,  "innocent, 
sincere," 

"Of  every  friendless  name  the  friend;" 

and  the  last  verse  is, 

"His  virtues  walked  their  narrow  round 

Nor  made  a  pause  nor  left  a  void; 
And  sure  the  Eternal  Master  found 
His  single  talent  well  employed." 

It  is  not  easy  to  imagine  active  vestrymen,  however 
thoughtful  and  devoted,  giving  time  to  a  book  like  this; 
but  should  there  be  one  who  is  also  open  to  a  piece  of 
friendly  advice,  I  would  counsel  him  to  say  to  his 


CHRISTIAN  ENTHUSIASM  AND  Music         263 

rector  what  one  of  the  best  vestrymen  I  ever  had  once 
said  to  me:  "Please  preach  a  sermon  on  the  one 
talent" — ask  him  too  for  more  than  one  discourse  on 
the  General  Confession.  For,  "sacrament,"  or  plain 
every-day  "rite,"  in  this  Confession,  with  the  Absolu- 
tion following,  we  enjoy  one  of  the  chief  means  of  grace 
in  the  Comforter's  hand. 


CHRISTIAN  ENTHUSIASM  AND  MUSIC 

Sing  ye  to  the  Lord  for  he  hath  triumphed  gloriously. — Exod. 
15  :21. 

Sing  us  one  of  the  songs  of  Sion. — Ps.  137  :  3. 

O  sing  unto  the  Lord  a  new  song,  and  his  praise  from  the  end 
of  the  earth.— Isa.  42  :  10. 

We  also  joy  in  God,  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  by  whom 
we  have  now  received  the  atonement. — Rom.  5:11. 

Be  ye  not  foolish,  but  understanding  what  the  will  of  the  Lord 
is.  And  be  not  drunken  with  wine,  wherein  is  riot;  but  be  filled 
with  the  Spirit;  speaking  one  to  another  in  psalms  and  hymns 
and  spiritual  songs  (odes),  singing  and  making  melody  with  your 
heart  to  the  Lord;  giving  thanks  always  for  all  things  in  the 
name  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  to  God,  even  the  Father;  sub- 
jecting yourselves  one  to  another  in  the  fear  of  Christ. — Eph. 
5  :  17-21  (20th  Sunday  after  Trinity). 

When  Music,  heavenly  maid,  was  young, 
While  yet  in  early  Greece  she  sung. — Collins. 

This  is  the  sort  of  wisdom  which  enables  a  man  to  do  what 
our  Lord  expects  of  spiritual  leaders,  to  "discern  the  time." 
It  is  a  rare  quality,  but  according  to  the  measure  of  the  gift  of 
Christ  to  each,  it  is  attained  by  spiritual  thoughtfulness,  single- 
mindedness,  and  prayer.  There  is  to  be,  secondly,  a  strong  and 


264         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

sociable  enthusiasm,  expressing  itself  in  uninterrupted  joy,  and 
based  upon  deep  draughts  of  the  divine  Spirit.  Lastly,  there  is 
to  be  a  spirit  of  submission,  mutual  accommodation  and  order. 

*  *     *    It  is  probably  true  to  say  that,  among  other  character- 
istics which  our  generation  exhibits,  is  a  lack  of  great  enthu- 
siasms and  strong  convictions  and  inspiring  leaders.     *     *     * 
Truly  if  rashness  has  slain  its  thousands,  irresolution  has  slain 
its  ten  thousands.     The  spirit  St.  Paul  would  have  us  cultivate 
is  not  this  cowardly  miscalled  wisdom,  but  rather  the  spirit  of 
the  ideal  soldier,  of   the  "happy   warrior." — Bishop   Gore,  on 
Ephesians. 

Seek  the  completest  satisfaction  of  your  nature  through  your 
highest  powers,  *  *  *  not  through  those  elements  of  your 
being  by  which  you  are  bound  to  earth,  *  *  *  so  your  faculties 
will  be  quickened  with  a  new  force  and  you  will  see  the  glory  of 
heaven.  Deep  springs  of  joy  will  be  opened  on  every  side; 
and  you  will  feel  with  fresh  sympathy  the  splendours  of  common 
things.  You  will  be  touched  with  a  noble  excitement,  which 
will  be,  as  it  were,  a  foretaste  of  the  rapture  of  saints,  an  excite- 
ment which  when  it  passes  away,  will  not  leave  you  wearied  and 
worn  out,  but  conscious  of  a  loftier  life. — Bishop  Westcott. 

Painting,  however  lofty  and  idealized,  nevertheless  depends 
entirely  on  what  has  been  seen,  or  may  be  seen,  around  us. 

*  *     *     Architecture,  though  of  higher  dignity,  as  being  not 
merely  imitative  but  to  some  extent  creative,  did  nevertheless 
originate  in  imitations  of  natural  objects,  and  can  never  exceed 
the  narrow  limits  imposed  on  it  by  its  necessary  localization. 
Like    painting,     it    is     essentially    perishable.     *     *     *     But 
music,  as  it  is  not  an  imitative,  but  a  creative  art,  so  are  its 
productions  as  imperishable  as  the  minds  which  have  created 
them.      Music  too  speaks  a  universal  and  unchanging  language. 

*  *     *     Even  when  married  to  words,  music  is  really  independ- 
ent of  them.     *     *     *     Music  of  the  highest  class  does  express 
a  sequence  and  development  of  thought,  though  that  be  not 
compressible  into  the  narrower  channel  of  articulate  speech. 
And  especially  does  it  lend  itself  to  the  expression  of  adoring 
thought,  that  thought  which  sinks  before  the  felt  presence  of  the 
Deity,  and  which  is  as  ineffable  as  the  Deity  itself. — Bishop 
Reichel,  Cathedral  Worship. 


CHRISTIAN  ENTHUSIASM  AND  Music         265 

Music  is  the  only  fine  art  the  practice  of  which  is  used  in 
Scripture  to  give  some  idea  of  the  employments  of  the  blessed  in 
heaven. — Ibid. 

The  words  from  Ephesians  in  the  altar-service  for 
the  Twentieth  Sunday  after  Trinity  form  a  striking 
passage;  not  least  by  reason  of  the  combination  in 
them  of  widely  different  features  as  one  whole.  It 
may  remind  us  of  a  small  canvas  upon  which  one  of 
the  world's  master-painters  has  grouped  many  figures, 
representing  many  aspects  of  human  life,  all  in  artistic 
harmony.  We  seem  to  see  Ephesian  merchants 
buying  up  their  opportunities  to  use  them  for  personal 
advantage  in  particular  commercial  situations;  Roman 
and  Greek  warriors  kept  "in  step"  and  stimulated 
by  martial  music;  St.  Paul  lying  on  his  couch  at 
midnight,  disturbed  and  saddened  by  sounds  of 
revelry  and  riot,  without  in  the  dark  Ephesian  streets, 
during  his  more  than  two  years'  stay  in  that  great 
heathen  city.  We  seem  to  hear  bands  of  Passover 
pilgrims  in  the  olden  times,  singing  antiphonally  the 
dear  songs  of  Sion  on  their  way  up  to  Jerusalem; 
and  again  the  early  Christians,  also  singing  "one  to 
another,"  antiphonally  (as  Pliny  too  described  it),  their 
"psalms  and  hymns  and  spiritual  songs."  And  our 
own  imagination  supplements  the  varied  scene  with 
French  and  Swiss,  English  and  American,  armies, 
marching  to  songs  which  stirred  devotion  to  their 
respective  countries. 

The  underlying  motives  of  the  inspired  picture  are 
Christian  wisdom,  earnestness,  unity,  and  the  enthu- 
siasm that  will  ever  result  when  the  glorious  ideals  of 
life  in  Christ  are  entertained,  and  arduous  duties  are 
done,  and  dangers  heroically  encountered,  by  the  many. 


266         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

St.  Paul  was  a  wide-visioned  man  to  whom  nothing 
human  was  foreign;  but  with  the  human  and  the 
natural  in  him  there  is  found  ever  the  supernatural, 
gospel,  element.  We  find  it  here  in  his  truth  of  the 
Pentecostal  Spirit.  The  joy  which  is  healthful  and 
real,  the  enthusiasm  which  is  true  and  lasting,  and 
will  not  like  that  of  wine  leave  the  manhood  shrunk 
and  weakened  by  and  by, — all  these  are  of  one  blood 
with  the  original  meaning  of  the  noble  Greek  word. 
For  these  are  chief  fruits  of  the  Spirit's  life  in  our 
hearts,  while  to  be  "enthused"  means  literally  to 
be  filled  with  God. 

This  then  is  one  of  the  truths  to  be  shown  to  our 
people  in  this  season — which  we  are  dealing  with  as  the 
long  Pentecostal  Season.  One  of  the  marked  charac- 
teristics of  the  Church's  early  life  was  a  next  to  mi- 
raculous, joyous  enthusiasm,  typical  of  the  eternal 
blessedness  of  Humanity  completely  redeemed;  and 
enthusiasm  and  joy  are  ear-marks, — heart-marks, — 
of  the  Spirit's  indwelling  life  to-day. 

We  read  that  "the  disciples  believed  not  for  joy," 
when  Christ  first  appeared  to  them  in  the  upper  room. 
After  His  Ascension,  when  we  might  have  expected 
feelings  of  depression,  "they  returned  to  Jerusalem 
with  great  joy."  The  kingdom  of  heaven,  it  reads  in 
Romans  14  :  17,  "is  not  meat  and  drink,  but  righteous- 
ness and  peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost."  There 
is  something  wanting,  something  wrong,  about  us, 
if  we  are  gloomy  Christians.  St.  Paul  is  in  this 
regard  our  greatest  exemplar,  after  Him  who  "endured 
the  cross  despising  the  shame,  for  the  joy  that  was  set 
before  him."  When  he  was  left  bound  in  Rome, 
as  he  said,  "the  Lord's  prisoner,"  deep  springs^of 


CHRISTIAN  ENTHUSIASM  AND  Music         267 

joy  and  hope  seem  to  have  opened  in  his  heart,  and 
he  became  most  enthusiastic. 

But  I  am  merely  suggesting  themes  for  sermons, 
not  "sermon-stuff."  All  I  would  here  say  is,  that 
Christians  need  to  be  taught  that  they  must  look 
upon  the  Spirit,  look  to  the  Spirit,  as  a  divine  well- 
spring  of  joy,  and  of  "that  noble  excitement  which 
will  be  as  it  were  a  foretaste  of  the  rapture  of  saints." 
It  is  "feeling,"  but  feeling  founded  upon  powerful 
convictions,  and  a  partial  "experience." 

What  remains  to  be  examined  is  the  vital  relation 
of  sacred  music  to  this  life  of  the  Spirit  in  our  hearts. 
Pope  wrote: 

"Some  to  church  repair, 
Not  for  the  doctrine,  but  the  music  there;" 

nor  are  they  wholly  wrong,  if  Bishop  Reichel's  thought 
is  correct,  that  music,  "even  when  married  to  words, 
is  really  independent  of  them."     Milton's  line, 
"Such  sweet  compulsion  doth  in  music  lie," 

and  Bishop  Reichel's  other  remark  relating  to  music's 
capacity  to  "lend  itself  to  the  expression  of  adoring 
thought, — thought  which  is  as  ineffable  as  the  Deity 
itself," — encourage  me  to  say  out  more  freely  and 
fully  things  I  have  long  felt  to  be  true. 

There  is  little  need  to  show  how  large  a  place  music 
holds  in  the  Scriptures,  Old  Testament  and  New,  and 
not  merely  in  connection  with  the  Psalms,  and  in  the 
apocalyptic  Vision  of  St.  John.  Scarcely  greater 
necessity  exists  for  showing  the  relation  of  music 
to  all  art,  and  all  human  activity.  Kant  described 
architecture  as  a  sort  of  frozen  music,  and  Schelling 


268         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

and  Madame  de  Stael  have  each  in  their  way  expressed 
the  same  thought.  Our  use  of  the  term  "har- 
mony" in  relation  to  painting,  sculpture,  poetry,  and 
every  form  of  expression,  in  relation  to  character  and 
conduct,  and  to  family  and  social  life  and  effort,  is 
one  of  many  indications  of  the  kinship.  So  of  love, 
and  humility,  and  all  united  action.  When  St.  Paul, 
after  writing  of  psalms  and  hymns  and  spiritual  songs, 
says  presently, — and  here  it  seems  to  me  commen- 
tators have  failed  to  apprehend  his  subtle  thought, — 
"submitting  yourselves  one  to  another  in  the  fear  of 
God,"  it  would  seem  to  be  impossible  for  a  chorister, 
or  any  musical  person,  not  to  think  of  the  absolute 
necessity  of  listening  each  moment  to  the  organ  and 
the  other  singers,  in  due  mutual  attention  and  sub- 
mission, in  order  to  attain  perfect  harmony  and 
rhythm  in  chant  and  hymn. 

Hymn  tunes,  instrumental  accompaniments,  and 
voluntaries,  composed  and  rendered  in  reverent  faith 
and  love,  and  with  the  thought  of  due  submission 
to  God,  and  to  each  other  in  the  fear  of  God,  we  must 
believe,  possess  a  spiritual  power  all  their  own.  They 
open  the  heart  and  mind  to  receive  the  truth  about 
God,  help  to  confirm  resolutions  to  love  and  serve 
Him,  and  love  the  Christian  brotherhood. 

Music  as  truly  as  sacred  poetry  is  a  creation  of  the 
Spirit.  Borne  upon  the  air,  at  times  a  long  distance, 
and  from  above, — produced  by  the  air  in  wind  instru- 
ments,— it  is  peculiarly  fitted  to  remind  man  of  the 
unseen,  ever-present,  heavenly,  Paraclete.  Collins' 
invocation,  beginning, 

"O  Music,  sphere-descended  maid, 
Friend  of  pleasure,  wisdom's  aid," 


CHRISTIAN  ENTHUSIASM  AND  Music         269 

is  specially  appropriate  to  religious  musical  composi- 
tion. Joseph  Haydn,  leaning  against  a  pillar  of 
the  old  church  in  Vienna,  and  listening  for  the  first 
time  to  his  own  Oratorio  of  The  Creation,  performed 
by  a  competent  choir  and  orchestra,  was  overheard 
saying  to  himself:  "Das  kommt  vom  Himmel;  es 
kommt  nicht  von  mir."  All  good  music  comes  from 
heaven,  and  sacred  music  more  than  all.  It  is  a  pecu- 
liarly heavenly  creation,  preaches  a  gospel  all  its 
own,  warns,  convicts,  commands,  invites,  pardons, 
and  receives,  in  a  message  of  its  own. 

One  reason  why  the  truth  of  the  Holy  Spirit  has 
been  "sadly  neglected"  from  very  early  times  until 
now,  is  that  He  is  unseen.  Our  Lord  has  been  seen 
and  handled,  listened  to  speaking  with  a  blessed 
human  voice,  which  in  the  gospels  seems  at  times 
actually  to  come  to  us,  "sounding  o'er  land  and  sea." 
Now  there  are  many  "Voices  of  the  Spirit,"  but  no 
one  has  literally  heard  them;  and  Music,  speaking 
to  the  very  depth  of  our  spirits  a  next  to  spiritual  lan- 
guage, would  appear  to  be  a  special  and  precious 
instrument  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  convincing  us  of 
our  sin  and  need  of  pardon,  and  convincing  us  of  the 
Father's  readiness  to  pardon  for  His  dear  Son's  sake. 

To  realize  how  much  Christianity  has  done  to 
elevate  music,  one  would  need  to  hear  the  tom-tom 
of  heathen  worship,  and  then  listen  to  The  Creation 
or  The  Messiah.  A  young  Japanese  woman  studying 
in  America,  being  asked  about  the  condition  of  musical 
art  in  Japan,  answered;  "O,  we  are  doing  a  good 
deal,  and  are  making  progress,  but  you  will  under- 
stand that  we  cannot  fully  comprehend  and  appreciate 
German  and  English  music  until  we  have  entered 


270         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

into  your  religious  ideas."  The  reply  was  as  suggestive 
as  it  was  intelligent.  Our  music,  even  our  love  songs, 
are  to  a  greater  degree  than  we  are  apt  to  imagine 
what  the  religion  of  Christ  has  made  them.  Palestrina, 
and  Bach,  and  Handel,  Haydn,  Mozart,  Beethoven,  are 
behind  and  in  our  entire  world  of  musical  thought. 
Therefore  is  there  less  excuse  for  weak,  sentimental, 
and  "trashy,"  music  in  American  homes  and  churches. 

And  what  has  not  music  given  in  return,  as  a  spiritual 
auxiliary  to  the  Church?  It  was  largely  by  its  solemn 
and  elevating  Gregorian  music, — superior  to  and 
gradually  supplanting  that  of  Ambrose, — that  the 
Latin  Church  through  Augustine's  mission  won  its 
way  to  the  heart  of  our  fierce  English  ancestors,  and 
the  fact  was  as  creditable  to  their  innate  feeling  as 
it  was  to  Gregory's  skill.  For  centuries  the  Latin 
Church  was  helped  on  by  its  proficiency  in  holy  song. 
English  and  American  Christianity  and  civilization 
owe  much  to  the  Latins  in  this  regard,  and  our  respon- 
sibility in  respect  to  musical  composition,  education 
of  the  people  in  music,  and  training  of  the  congrega- 
tion to  sing  in  the  service,  is  the  greater  on  this  account. 
There  is  no  solemnizing  and  uplifting,  no  socializing 
and  harmonizing  influence,  equal  to  that  of  united 
song  in  the  House  of  God. 

We  may  not  be  able  to  go  all  the  way  with  Lorenzo, 
pouring  into  the  ear  of  Jessica  his  feelings  of  dislike 
for 

"The  man  that  hath  no  music  in  himself, 
Nor  is  not  moved  with  concord  of  sweet  sounds," 

but  this  we  must  think  true,  that  "the  motions  of 
his  spirit  are  dull,"  if  not  "dull  as  night,"  and  the 


CHRISTIAN  ENTHUSIASM  AND  Music         271 

motions  of  any  religious  body  are  so,  and  its  mission- 
ary effort  and  progress  not  likely  to  be  notable,  which 
does  not  believe  in  sacred  song,  and  cultivate  it.  Our 
rich  collection  of  hymns,  and  of  chant  and  hymn  tunes, 
form  a  considerable  part  of  our  catholic  heritage;  and 
it  is  to  the  Spirit's  creative  energy  that  we  are  indebted 
alike  for  the  one  and  the  other.  To  the  Spirit  and  the 
Bride  we  owe  the  Scriptures  and  the  Creeds;  the  Spirit. 
and  the  Bride  have  given  us  the  Lyric  of  the  new 
covenant  in  Christ.  There  is  cause  for  gratitude, — 
in  the  Spirit's  Season  especially, — that  whereas  the 
Prayer  Book  itself  is  not  rich  in  prayers  directly 
or  indirectly  invoking  Him,  the  Hymnal  is  in  this 
respect  remarkably  rich.  Beside  the  Whitsuntide 
hymns  proper,  and  certain  beautiful  Confirmation 
hymns,  there  are  many  others  which  in  whole  or  in 
part  are  directly  prayers  to  the  Spirit.  These,  if 
used  now,  and  at  other  times  in  the  Christian  Year, 
will  go  a  long  way  to  supply  the  lack  of  prayers  to, 
and  for,  the  Third  Person,  such  as  abounded  in  the 
primitive  liturgies.  They  will  do  not  a  little  to  com- 
pensate for  the  neglect  of  Spirit-doctrine,  and  of 
grateful  adoring  meditation  upon  Him  in  these  later 
times,  and  tend  to  revive  the  Church's  sense  of 
dependence  upon  Him  as  the  other  Comforter,  the 
Lord,  and  Giver  of  life. 

When  through  the  use  of  these  hymn-prayers, 
and  as  a  divine  response  to  them,  all  Christendom, 
impressed  with  the  Spirit-truth,  shall  in  some  sort 
realize  what  the  Holy  Ghost  has  been,  is  now,  and 
ever  shall  be,  to  the  kingdoms  of  Nature  and  of  Grace 
alike,  can  we  not  imagine  a  greater  than  Haydn  or 
Handel  arising,  who  shall  give  the  Church  a  grander, 


272         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

sweeter  Oratorio  of  The  Creation; — its  theme  not 
merely  the  birth  of  the  light,  "the  waters'  foaming 
billows,"  and  the  earth  "with  verdure  clad,"  or  what 
"the  heavens  are  telling"  of  God's  glory  in  sun  and 
moon  and  stars,  with  what  Adam  and  Eve  once 
breathed  in  each  other's  ears  about  their  happiness 
in  a  state  of  innocence?  It  will  have  for  its  theme 
the  history  of  a  new  humanity  in  a  yet  more  splendid 
setting,  "a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth,  wherein 
dwelleth  righteousness."  It  will  sing  of  a  race  with 
nobler  possibilities  than  the  first,  through  vital  union 
in  Christ  with  the  Godhead  Itself;  a  Humanity 
created  first  in  the  Person  of  our  Lord,  and  through 
the  trial  and  suffering  of  His  human  soul  perfected 
primarily  in  Him,  to  be  afterward  created,  developed, 
and  perfected  on  the  widest  scale  in  that  other  Body 
of  Christ  termed  in  Scripture  "the  fulness  of  him  that 
filleth  all  in  all." 

What  other  form  of  expression,  even  inspired,  might 
in  our  day  expand  more  beautifully  the  Apostle's 
thought,  in  1st  Cor.  2  :  9, 

"Things  which  eye  saw  not,  and  ear  heard  not, 
And  which  entered  not  into  the  heart  of  man 
Whatsoever  things  God  prepared  for  them  that  love  him; 
But  unto  us  God  revealed  them  through  the  Spirit "  ? 

For  the  dominant  motive  in  that  more  heavenly 
and  spiritual  composition  will  be  the  mighty  Spirit's 
part  in  this  all  glorious  "Operation."  It  will  be  an 
Oratorio  of  the  New  Creation  in  Christ's  Spirit,  who 
together  with  the  Father  and  the  Son,  will  be  mag- 
nified as  harp  and  viol,  lute  and  organ,  tongue  and 
pen  of  man,  have  never  magnified  Him  before. 


THE  SPIRIT  AND  THE  LORD'S  DAY  273 

THE  SPIRIT  AND  THE  LORD'S  DAY 

And  God  said,  Let  there  be  light,  and  there  was  light.     And 
the  evening  and  the  morning  were  the  first  day. — Gen.  1  :  2,  5. 

I  am  the  light  of  the  world. — John  8  :  12. 

The  first  day  of  the  week  cometh  Mary  Magdalene  early  *     * 
and  seeth  the  stone  taken  away  from  the  sepulchre. — John  20  :  1. 

Upon  the  first  day  of  the  week,  when  the  disciples  came 
together  to  break  bread,  Paul  preached  unto  them. — Acts  20  :  7. 

This  is  the  day  which  the  Lord  hath  made:   we  will  rejoice 
and  be  glad  in  it.— Ps.  118  :  24. 

I  was  in  the  Spirit  on  the  Lord's  day. — Rev.  1  :  10. 

Ye  are  all  the  children  of  light,  and  the  children  of  the  day. — 
1st  Thee.  5  :  5. 

Come,  let  us  all  with  one  accord 
Adore  and  magnify  the  Lord, 
And  festive  service  pay, 

On  this  the  day  that  God  hath  blest, 
The  day  of  peace  and  heavenly  rest 
The  Lord's  own  holy  day, 

That  saw  primeval  darkness  break 
And  that  more  glorious  life  awake, 
That  lasteth  evermore; 

That  saw  hell's  legions  prostrate  fall, 
And  Christ,  triumphant  over  all, 
His  own  to  heaven  restore. 

This  day  the  peace  that  flows  from  heaven 
Was  unto  the  Apostles  given, 
When  doors  were  closed  at  night : 

This  day  the  Holy  Spirit's  flame 
Upon  the  Church's  teachers  came, 
And  filled  their  souls  with  light. — Ancient  Hymn. 

18 


274         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

The  Sundays  of  man's  life 
Threaded  together  on  time's  string, 

Make  bracelets  to  adorn  the  wife 
Of  the  eternal  glorious  King. 

On  Sunday  Heaven's  gate  stands  ope: 
Blessings  are  plentiful  and  rife; 

More  plentiful  than  hope. — George  Herbert. 

The  old  saying,  "Keep  Sunday  and  Sunday  will 
keep  you,"  would  seem  to  need  changing  into  "Save 
Sunday  and  Sunday  will  save  you."  As  Bishop  Whit- 
aker  said  in  the  Church  Standard  six  years  ago:  "We 
regard  the  whole  drift  of  things  concerning  it  with 
serious  alarm.  We  believe  this  drift  to  be  ominous 
of  evil  to  the  religious,  moral,  and  even  physical  well- 
being  of  the  American  people."  How  strange  that  so 
many  professing  to  be  Christians,  who  have  not  only 
warm  hearts  and  quick  consciences,  but  intelligence 
besides,  do  not  appear  to  have  taken  the  alarm!  They 
do  not  realize  that  the  Lord's  Day, — the  day  He 
"hath  made"  for  Himself  and  us  by  His  victory  over 
Sin  and  Death, — constitutes,  together  with  the  holy 
service  of  "praise  and  thanksgiving"  instituted  by 
Him,  one  of  the  most  substantial  evidences  of  the  truth 
of  Christianity.  Every  Sunday,  with  its  Sunday 
Communion,  tells  the  world  anew  that  Christ  is  risen, 
and  that  our  faith  is  not  vain. 

But  some  who  do  realize  this,  and  would  gladly  save 
Sunday  for  their  own  souls'  sake,  and  for  Christ  and 
the  world,  do  not  know  how  to  save  it. 

The  manner  in  which  Sunday  has  been  regarded, 
and  its  authority  upheld,  by  vast  numbers  of  Chris- 
tians in  later  times,  may  remind  one  of  the  image  set 
up  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  part  gold,  part  silver,  part 


THE  SPIRIT  AND  THE  LORD'S  DAY  275 

iron,  and  part  clay.  Not  that  the  ancient  Sabbath 
had  iron  and  clay  in  it,  but  that  being  the  Spirit's 
institution,  and  as  it  were  of  silver,  and  anciently  a 
cheerful  feast,  Puritanism  by  changing  it  into  a  fast 
day,  and  by  making  it  the  foundation  of  our  more 
glorious  New  Testament  day,  mixed  iron  and  clay  with 
it.  Constantino's  foundation  for  Sunday  had  the  iron 
of  imperial  authority  in  it.  It  gave  new  and  wider 
recognition  to  Christianity.  It  gained  a  weekly  day 
of  rest  for  man  and  beast.  It  has  endured  like  iron 
in  this  sense  down  to  our  own  tunes.  But  our  Sunday 
is  all  of  gold.  The  Head  of  it,  Christ,  is  gold.  The 
Spirit  descended  on  this  first  day,  to  make  it  still 
more  emphatically  a  Day  of  Light.  On  this  day 
many  enjoy  bright  visions  of  heavenly  truth,  and 
golden-mouthed  preachers  preach  the  truth.  Must 
we  not  attribute  it  to  the  Spirit  of  Wisdom,  that  the 
day  when  the  light  was  created  was,  so  to  say,  reserved 
for  its  peculiarly  honourable  position  in  relation  to  the 
new,  universal,  "dispensation"  hi  Christ  and  His 
Spirit? 

The  old  day,  the  Sabbath,  part  of  that  system  of 
"ordinances"  which  the  Scripture  says  was  but  the 
"shadow  of  things  to  come,"  the  Body  being  "of 
Christ," — speaks  of  as  now  taken  "out  of  the  way," 
being  nailed  to  His  Cross  (Col.  2  :  14,  17),  was  never- 
theless ideally,  as  exhibited  in  Exodus  and,  as  we  saw 
before,  particularly  in  Deuteronomy,  certainly  like 
unto  silver.  It  is  a  shining  day  in  many  a  Jewish 
household  throughout  the  world  now.  But  the  Lord's 
Sunday,  as  a  day  of  rest  and  worship  and  joyful 
fellowship  for  His  Church,  is,  as  we  have  said,  all  of 
gold.  The  foundation  is  itself  precious.  We  see 


276        THE  TKINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

this  plainly  by  comparing  the  texts  above  given.  In 
the  hymn  quoted  (No.  26  in  our  Book) — judging  by 
the  almost  childlike  simplicity  and  reality  of  it,  a  very 
ancient  production, — we  find  the  Old  Testament  event 
of  the  creation  of  light,  and  the  two  supreme  New  Testa- 
ment events,  the  Resurrection  of  our  Lord  and  the 
Imparting  of  the  divine  Spirit  to  His  Church,  set  forth 
as  vitally  connected  with  our  Sunday.  If  only  these 
two  verities  of  the  Christian  Faith,  of  which  Dr. 
Milligan  said  the  one  had  been  scarcely  less  ignored 
than  the  other  in  our  time,  held  a  larger  place  in  our 
thoughts  now,  and  were  seen  in  their  true  relation  to 
Christ's  Day,  no  such  "serious  alarm"  would  exist 
in  Christian  minds  generally  as  has  been  referred  to. 

Is  not  this  the  truth  about  the  Sabbath  which  was 
of  silver,  and  Sunday  which  is  golden,  that  both  are 
to  be  esteemed  institutions  of  the  Third  divine  Person, 
and  possessing  a  vital  relationship  to  each  other? 
But  it  was  the  relation  of  the  seed  to  the  plant.  And 
"that  which  thou  so  west  is  not  quickened  except  it 
die."  The  Seventh  day  Rest  of  the  elder  covenant 
went  down  as  it  were  dead,  with  Christ,  into  the  grave; 
and,  having  slept  with  Him,  rose  with  Him  a  new, 
transfigured,  and  more  glorious,  institution,  a  more 
spiritual  day,  restful,  peaceful,  and  joyful  in  a  richer, 
fuller  sense.  As  the  three-ordered  ministry  in  Israel, 
and  circumcision,  and  the  old  covenant  sacrifices,  died 
that  they  might  live  again,  in  another  three-ordered 
ministry  of  the  New  Testament,  a  new  Sacrament 
of  initiation,  a  better  Eucharist, — the  same,  yet  not  the 
same, — as  Jesus  Himself  came  forth  the  same,  yet 
not  the  same  Christ,  so  was  it  with  this  day. 

And  the  Lord,  and  Giver  of   the  new   Christ-life, 


THE  SPIRIT  AND  THE  LORD'S  DAY  277 

was  the  Life  of  this  Day.  Plainly  the  Pentecostal 
Church  received  it, — just  as  it  received  those  other 
transfigured,  freer,  and  more  heavenly  institutions, — 
as  from  the  Holy  Ghost,  in  whom  it  implicitly  believed 
as  the  Vicar  of  Jesus  Christ.  What  need  existed  then, 
and  what  need  exfsts  now,  for  distinctly  authoritative 
apostolic  and  ecclesiastical  utterances,  to  confirm  a 
Christian's  belief  in,  and  keep  firm  his  loyal  affection 
for,  this  Day?  The  Sunday  law  resembles  the  Gospel 
law  generally.  It  is  a  "royal  law,  a  law  of  liberty," 
and  all  the  more  binding  for  the  conscience  and  heart. 
It  is  the  "law  of  the  Spirit  of  life."  It  is  that  law  of 
love,  which  is  "the  more  excellent  way." 

To  eat  the  sour  grapes  of  Puritanism  on  the  one 
hand,  or  ecclesiasticism  on  the  other,  is  to  have  our 
own  teeth,  and  what  is  so  often  worse,  our  children's 
teeth  "set  on  edge."  Many  years  ago  a  bright, 
handsome  boy  in  Exeter  Academy,  fond  of  fun  and 
"popular,"  was  asked  by  his  rector,  "How  is  it  that 
you  are  so  boylike  and  gay,  yet  faithful  to  your  Church 
and  to  the  Communion?"  The  answer  came,  after 
some  moments,  "I  think  it  must  be  because  my  father 
made  Sunday  the  happiest  day  in  the  week  to  all  the 
children." 

To  love  our  Sundays  spiritually,  yet  humanly,  is 
to  save  Sunday  to  ourselves  and  those  around  us. 
The  Scripture  says,  He  that  loveth  his  wife, — and  it 
might  have  been  added,  his  family  and  God's  greater 
family  the  Church, —  loveth  himself.  And  so  he  that 
loves  his  Sunday  and  makes  it  a  day  of  rest,  of  wor- 
ship, and  of  benefit  and  happiness  to  others,  loveth 
himself. 

What  has  been  said  of  Good  Friday  and  Easter 


278         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

as  being  the  death  and  rising  again  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment Sabbath,  George  Herbert  quaintly  says  in  a 
different  way. 

"The  Rest  of  our  creation 
Our  great  Redeemer  did  remove 

With  the  same  shake  which,  at  his  passion, 
Did  th'  earth,  and  all  things  with  it,  move. 

As  Samson  bore  the  doors  away, 
Christ's  hands,  though  nail'd,  wrought  our  salvation, 

And  did  unhinge  that  day." 

But  God  forbid  that  in  this  era  of  the  Spirit  the  other 
strong  man,  our  Enemy,  should  prevail  to  "unhinge" 
the  transfigured  Sabbath  of  the  risen  Christ;  that  we 
should,  as  Bishop  Whitaker  said, 

"lose  the  Lord's  Day  as  Catholic  Christendom  knew  it  for 
fifteen  hundred  years, — part  with  its  splendid  gain  of  a  weekly 
day  of  rest  for  man  and  beast,"  which  would  be  "criminal 
folly.  *  *  *  Apart  from  all  strictly  religious  sentiment, 
we  hold  that  the  civil  state  will  strike  at  one  essential  condition 
of  its  own  permanent  well-being  if  it  does  not  guard  the  precious 
heritage.  *  *  *  God  forbid  too  that  we  should  not  go  back 
to  first  principles,  and  reclaim  for  the  Lord's  Day  the  sanctity 
which  it  received  at  first  by  reasonable  worship." 

And  somehow  the  "nailed  hand"  is  ever  mightier 
than  the  mailed  hand,  or  the  militant  word.  Should 
earnest  Christians  be  led  by  their  very  earnestness  to 
place  dependence  upon  Church  canons  and  civil 
authority,  again  I  beg  to  urge  reliance  on  spiritual 
means.  By  "the  finger  of  God"  our  Lord  cast  out 
devils  to  the  confusion  of  Beelzebub,  and  God's  Finger 
is  the  Holy  Ghost.  The  history  of  Christianity  proves 
that  since  Pentecost  the  Stronger  Man  has  been  over- 
coming His  and  our  Enemy,  taking  from  him  his 


REVERENCE  AND  GODLY  FEAR  279 

armour,  and  dividing  his  spoils,  mainly  by  miracles 
of  love  and  wisdom. 

It  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  too  that,  pray,  preach,  and 
live  as  we  may,  the  Lord's  Day  can  never  be  brimful 
of  "rest  and  gladness,"  of  "joy  and  light,"  until  this 
world  has  become  wholly  the  Lord's  world.  Of  the 
perfect  "rest  which  remaineth  for  the  people  of  God" 
our  Sunday  is  the  reminder  and  promise.  Let  us 
confide  in  this  promise  with  the  same  grateful,  child- 
like, simplicity  which  breathes  in  the  very  ancient 
hymn  I  have  quoted,  and  which  ends 

"Then  on  this  day  let  us  adore 
Our  God,  and  supplication  pour, 

That,  when  worlds  pass  away, 
Through  Christ's  dear  grace  our  souls  may  rest 
In  peace  and  joy,  forever  blest, 

Till  the  great  Judgment  day." 


REVERENCE  AND  GODLY  FEAR 

I  will  send  my  beloved  son :  it  may  be  they  will  reverence  him 
when  they  see  him. — Luke  20  :  13. 

Let  us  have  grace,  whereby  we  may  serve  God  with  reverence 
and  godly  fear.— Heb.  12  :  28. 

And  every  creature  which  is  in  heaven,  and  on  the  earth,  and 
under  the  earth,  and  such  as  are  in  the  sea,  and  all  that  are  in 
them,  heard  I  saying,  Blessing,  and  honour,  and  glory,  and 
power,  be  unto  Him  that  sitteth  upon  the  throne,  and  unto  the 
Lamb  forever  and  ever. — Rev.  5  :  13. 

"The  word  was  made  flesh  and  dwelt  among  us,"  but  while 
we  tell  men  of  His  hunger  and  thirst  and  pain,  His  human 
affections,  His  accessibility  to  temptation,  and  His  nights  of 


280        THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

prayer,  we  must  also  enable  them  to  recognize  His  glory — "the 
glory  as  of  the  only-begotten  of  the  Father,  full  of  grace  and 
truth."  I  think  I  have  sometimes  seen  in  the  writings  even 
of  those  who  would  claim  for  themselves  exceptional  fidelity 
to  the  orthodox  and  Evangelical  creed,  the  unambiguous  proof 
that  they  have  a  most  inadequate  sense  of  the  majesty  of  the  Son 
of  God.  They  speak  of  Him  with  a  fondling  affection  which 
is  inconsistent  with  true  reverence.  Their  faith  in  His  sympathy 
with  them  in  their  sorrows  is  real;  but  there  is  no  such  awe  as 
must  come  from  a  deep  and  living  sense  of  His  moral  authority. 
They  are  always  lying  on  His  breast;  they  never  fall  at  His  feet 
with  wonder  and  fear.  There  is  a  similar  failure  to  recognize 
Him  as  "the  brightness  of  the  Father's  glory  and  the  express 
image  of  His  person,"  in  theologians  of  a  very  different  school — 
theologians  who  acknowledge  in  their  creed  the  true  Deity  of 
our  Lord,  but  who  are  so  interested  in  His  human  develop- 
ment, so  fascinated  with  the  ethical  perfection  of  His  charac- 
ter, with  His  tenderness  to  the  imfirmities  of  men,  His  merciful 
words  to  those  who  had  grievously  sinned,  and  the  charm  of 
His  human  friendships,  so  touched  with  the  pathetic  story  of 
the  tears  which  He  shed  over  Jerusalem,  and  the  agony  which 
came  upon  Hun  in  the  garden,  that  they  ignore  the  manifes- 
tations of  that  Supernatural  and  Divine  glory  which  again  and 
again  broke  through  the  clouds  in  which  it  was  for  a  time  con- 
cealed."—R.  W.  Dale, 

In  hardly  another  point  is  the  Prayer  Book  more  dis- 
tinctly true  to  the  New  Testament,  and  to  the  Church's 
sacred  traditions,  than  in  that  of  reverence;  for  God, 
and  the  Son  of  God,  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Popular 
Protestantism  has  not  always  been  so  reverent,  and 
it  is  one  of  the  most  eminent  of  modern  Protestant 
divines  whom  we  have  found  calling  attention  to  the 
fact.  There  may  be  many  constant  readers  of  the 
New  Testament, — not  a  few  Prayer  Book  Christians, 
— who  need  to  be  reminded  that  as  we  pass  on  from 
the  Gospel  period,  if  one  may  so  speak  of  it,  into  the 


REVERENCE  AND  GODLY  FEAR  281 

Pentecostal,  the  Spirit's  era,  the  time  when  apostles 
and  prophets  spake  and  wrote  as  enlightened  by  the 
divine  Paraclete,  our  Lord  is  spoken  of  differently.  He 
wears  His  glorious  heavenly  titles,  as  being  the  Ascended 
Lord. 

Pentecost  marks  the  turning-point.  In  more  senses 
than  one  is  it  true  that  St.  Peter,  St.  Stephen,  and 
St.  James,  like  St.  Paul,  know  the  Saviour  "no  more 
after  the  flesh."  His  name  is  like  Himself  trans- 
figured and  glorified.  "God,"  declared  St.  Peter 
on  the  first  Whitsunday,  "hath  made  that  same  Jesus, 
whom  ye  (of  the  house  of  Israel)  have  crucified,  both 
Lord  and  Christ"  (Acts  2  :  36).  In  the  fifth  chapter 
(v.  31)  it  is  again  announced:  "Him  hath  God  exalted 
with  his  right  hand  to  be  a  Prince  and  a  Saviour." 
Stephen  while  being  stoned  calls  upon  God,  and  cries, 
"Lord  Jesus,  receive  my  spirit"  (7  :  59).  The  future 
Apostle  to  the  Nations,  overwhelmed  by  the  vision 
of  the  glorified  Son  of  Man  near  Damascus,  asks, 
"Lord,  what  wilt  thou  have  me  to  do?"  (9  :  6),  and 
St.  James  writes  to  his  fellow  disciples  of  the  faith, 
not  of  Jesus,  but  "of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 

Precious  to  us  as  the  record  is  of  the  time  when 
Christ  lived  "in  the  flesh,"  walked  and  talked  with 
men  by  the  lake  side  and  in  the  house, — relieved  as 
in  a  sense  we  are  after  the  scene  of  glory  upon  the 
holy  mount,  to  find  ourselves,  as  it  were,  again  with 
Him  as  before  on  the  plain,  in  the  life  of  every  day, — 
dear  as  is  the  thought  of  what  is  yet  coming  to  His 
true  followers  in  the  future,  prefigured  by  that  familiar 
intercourse, — the  other  side  of  the  glorious  truth 
may  not  be  forgotten  by  us.  This  other  side  is,  first, 
that  He  who  was  well-pleased  to  call  Himself  the  Son 


282         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

of  Man  was  also  the  adorable,  true  and  only-begotten 
Son  of  God  in  heaven,  and  secondly,  that  one  of  our 
very  best  means  of  preparation  for  the  blessed  inter- 
course with  Him  hereafter  is  to  meditate  upon,  and  by 
the  Spirit's  help  realize,  His  present  glory,  even  as  man. 

Profoundly  suggestive  to  faith  is  the  fact  that 
the  very  disciple  who  leaned  on  the  Lord's  breast  at 
supper  is  the  one  who  in  his  late  years  had  the  vision 
of  Him  in  His  glory,  heard  the  voices  of  the  ten  thou- 
sand times  ten  thousand  around  the  throne,  ascribing 
"blessing,  and  honour,  and  glory,  and  power"  unto 
God,  and  "  unto  the  Lamb  for  ever  and  ever." 

Jesus, — the  same  as  Joshua, — a  divinely-given  and 
beautiful  name,  was  none  the  less  a  human  one.  Other 
boys  in  Nazareth  may  have  borne  it.  It  was  the  name 
that  corresponded  to  His  state  of  self-humiliation 
for  our  sakes.  When  used,  as  it  is  occasionally  in 
Hebrews,  it  is  in  connection  with  His  lowliness  and 
patient  suffering  on  man's  behalf.  In  the  Acts, 
and  in  the  Epistles  generally,  this  humble,  earthly, 
name,  which  marks  His  oneness  with  us,  becomes 
heavenly  and  great  by  being  associated  with  the 
name  Christ  (Messiah),  and  that  other  name  which 
was  "above  every  name"  (Phil.  2  :  9)  Jehovah 
(Lord)  held  by  the  Jews  too  sacred  to  be  pronounced 
aloud  except  in  the  temple. 

"It  is  not  for  us,"  wrote  Dr.  Dale  in  "Fellowship  with 
Christ,"  page  137,  "to  prolong  His  humiliation,  to  keep 
Him  uncrowned,  to  withhold  in  these  the  days  of  His  tri- 
umph the  homage  which  He  voluntarily  surrendered  dur- 
ing the  years  that  He  was  visibly  present  among  men." 

Not  to  honour  our  blessed  Redeemer  by  remember- 
ing reverently  to  employ  these  His  present  titles,  in 


REVERENCE  AND  GODLY  FEAR  283 

the  language  of  praise  and  prayer,  in  sermons,  and 
in  the  daily  intercourse  with  Christian  friends,  is  by 
so  much  the  less  to  honour  ourselves  as  redeemed  in 
Him.  We  are  already  new  creatures  and  virtually 
glorified  by  our  mystical  union  with  the  risen  Lord: 
as  the  Scripture  declares,  sitting  with  God  "in  the 
heavenly  places,  in  Christ  Jesus."  (Eph.  2  :  6.) 

It  ought  not  to  pass  unnoticed  that  neither  in  the 
New  Testament  nor  in  the  Prayer  Book  is  Christ 
spoken  of  as  "dear,"  except  in  that  He  is  dear  to  God; 
as  when  St.  Paul  writes  to  the  Colossians  (chap.  1  :  13) 
of  the  Father  "who  hath  translated  us  into  the  king- 
dom of  his  dear  Son."  The  Prayer  Book, — and  shall 
we  not  thank  the  guiding  Spirit  for  it? — never  leans 
to  the  side  of  sentiment  and  familiarity,  or  to  the 
"fondling  affection  which  is  inconsistent  with  true 
reverence."  It  never  forgets  the  majesty  of  God 
or  the  Son  of  God.  There  is  reason  for  gratitude  in 
the  fact  that  few  hymns  in  the  Church's  Hymnal 
can  be  faulted  in  this  respect. 

Again  I  say,  thank  the  Holy  Spirit!  And  note  how 
near  to  the  time  of  His  own  epiphany  falls  the  Sunday 
whose  Epistle  (1st  John  3  :  13)  contains  the  words: 
"Hereby  we  know  that  He  abideth  in  us,  by  the  Spirit 
which  He  hath  given  us,"  and  "If  our  heart  condemn 
us,  God  is  greater  than  our  heart,  and  knoweth  all 
things,"  while  its  Collect  reads: 

"O  Lord,  who  never  failest  to  help  and  govern 
those  whom  thou  dost  bring  up  in  thy  stedfast  fear 
and  love;  Keep  us,  we  beseech  thee,  under  the  pro- 
tection of  thy  good  providence,  and  make  us  to  have 
a  perpetual  fear  and  love  of  thy  holy  Name;  through 
Jesus  Christ,  our  Lord," 


284         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

CHRISTIAN  SOCIAL  ETHICS 
Blessed  is  he  that  considereth  the  poor. — Pa.  41  :  1. 

Thou  shalt  not  defraud  thy  neighbour,  neither  rob  him:  the 
wages  of  him  that  is  hired  shall  not  abide  with  thee  all  night 
until  the  morning. — Lev.  19  :  13. 

Is  not  this  the  fast  that  I  have  chosen, — to  undo  the  heavy 
burdens,  and  to  let  the  oppressed  go  free,  and  that  ye  break 
every  yoke? — Isa.  58  :  6. 

He  hath  filled  the  hungry  with  good  things. — Luke  53  :  1. 
Blessed  be  ye  poor. — Luke  6  :  20. 

And  all  that  believed  were  together,  and  had  all  things  com- 
mon; and  sold  their  possessions  and  goods  and  parted  them  to 
all  men  as  every  man  had  need. — Acts  2  :  44,  45. 

And  the  fellowship  of  the  Holy  Ghost  be  with  you  all. — 
2d  Cor.  13  :  14. 

We  have  fellowship  one  with  another. — 1  John  1  :  7. 

It  is  high  time  that  the  whole  strength  and  influence  of  the 
community  should  be  deliberately,  patiently,  used  to  raise  the 
standard  of  life  of  its  weaker  members. — Minority  Report  of  the 
(English)  Labour  Commission. 

It  has  been  one  of  my  chief  joys  to  watch  the  gradual  accept- 
ance of  the  master-thoughts  of  corporate  obligation  and  corporate 
interdependence,  till  now  it  is  (may  I  not  say?)  universally 
acknowledged  among  Englishmen  that  we  all  belong  to  one  body, 
in  which  the  least  member  has  his  proper  function. — Bishop 
Westcott. 

The  organization  of  industry  is  the  organization  of  national 
life.— Ibid. 

The  best  modern  conscience  is  to  be  reached  and  touched  and 
won  in  no  way  so  effectively  as  by  a  strong  and  consistent 
appeal  to  the  principle  of  brotherhood. — Bishop  Gore. 

We  have  no  right  for  their  sake,  or  for  our  own,  to  preach 
contentment  to  the  poor,  or  bribe  them  into  acquiescence, 
until  we  have  given  them  the  elementary  justice  of  an  equal 
opportunity  of  living  the  life  which  God  intended  for  them. — 
Peile,  Bampton  Lectures, 


CHRISTIAN  SOCIAL  ETHICS  285 

The  mass  of  professing  Christians  themselves  regard  their 
religion  as  rather  static  than  dynamic.  They  would  fain  be 
tarrying  all  their  lives  in  the  Interpreter's  house,  instead  of 
tramping  the  open  road  with  Mr.  Greatheart,  through  difficulty 
and  peril  and  extreme  discomfort,  but  on  towards  the  Heavenly 
City.— Ibid. 

If  we  took  the  words,  "Become  as  little  Children"  seriously, 
they  would  seem  repellent  or  absurd  to  people  who  value  them- 
selves chiefly  on  cautious  judgment,  business  acumen,  and  a 
proper  sense  of  their  position.  *  *  *  The  starved,  common- 
place, spirit  of  us  must  suffer  a  change  "into  something  rich 
and  strange"  before  we  have  a  right  to  call  ourselves  disciples  of 
Jesus  Christ,  or  profess  to  be  forwarding  his  cause  in  the 
world.  *  *  *  Class  distinctions,  which  do  not  seem  to  grow 
fainter  with  the  advance  of  political  democracy,  are  the  great 
barrier  to  Christian  work,  for  they  seem  to  make  impossible 
the  sympathy  and  open  speaking  which  are  the  condition  of 
spiritual  influence.  *  *  *  The  very  existence  of  such  a 
dilemma  proves  how  profound  a  revolution  in  human  thought 
or  feeling  is  needed  before  Society  can  be  brought  into  accord 
with  Christian  principles. — Ibid. 

Our  splashes  upward,  O  gold  heaper, 

And  your  purple,  show  your  path, 
But  the  child's  sob  in  the  silence  curses  deeper 

Than  the  strong  man  in  his  wrath. — Mrs.  Browning. 

Not  least  important  among  the  signs  which 
announced  the  Holy  Spirit's  descent  upon  the  Church 
were  those  two  ethical  miracles,  first  a  new  sympathy 
for  mankind  the  world  over,  and  the  desire  to  preach 
the  Gospel  to  every  creature;  and,  secondly,  a  wonder- 
ful manifestation  of  human  fellowship.  The  primitive 
Church  was  one  family.  They  "had  all  things  com- 
mon; sold  their  possessions  and  goods,  and  parted  them 
to  all  men  as  every  man  had  need."  It  was  a  spiritual 
phenomenon,  a  singular  thing.  Barnabas  who  owned 
a  field  in  the  rich  island  of  Cyprus,  "sold  it  and  brought 


286         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

the  money,  and  laid  it  at  the  Apostles'  feet,"  and  the 
Collect  for.  St.  Barnabas'  Day  speaks  of  him  as 
"endowed  with  singular  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost." 
That  the  noble  generosity  of  this  "son  of  consolation," 
or  of  other  early  Christians,  was  singular  in  the  sense  of 
being  un-Jewish,  cannot  be  affirmed.  Long  chapters 
in  Exodus.  Leviticus  and  Deuteronomy  are  largely 
taken  up  with  injunctions  in  regard  to  neighbourly 
charity  and  kindness  to  the  poor  and  to  strangers. 
The  command  to  keep  sacred  the  seventh  day  as  a 
day  of  rest  is  (in  Deut.  5  :  14,  15)  based  chiefly  on  the 
obligation  to  consider  servants  and  "the  stranger  that 
is  within  thy  gates;  that  thy  manservant  and  thy 
maidservant  may  rest  as  well  as  thou.  And  remember 
that  thou  wast  a  servant  in  the  land  of  Egypt,  and  that 
the  Lord  thy  God  brought  thee  out  thence  through  a 
mighty  hand  and  a  stretched  out  arm."  Many  of  us 
would  be  glad  to  hear  this  Deuteronomic  law  read  in 
the  Chancel  service  rather  than  the  Exodus  one,  and 
if  this  may  not  be,  it  may  be  practicable  otherwise,  in 
the  way  of  Church  decoration  for  instance,  to  remind 
Christians  by  these  words  of  their  duty  to  household 
servants  and  other  wage-earning  people  on  the  Lord's 
resurrection  day?  That  Jewish  people,  now  com- 
paratively homeless  and  churchless  in  the  world,  both 
keep  their  ancient  Sabbath,  and  are  kind  to  the  poor 
in  a  manner  to  shame  many  who  enjoy  the  richer 
heritage  in  the  true  Messiah,  is  certainly  due  to  those 
Old  Testament  injunctions  of  humanity. 

What  was  singular,  however,  and  notable  in  the  new 
covenant  spirit  of  love,  was  that  it  was  a  universal 
love.  And  it  was  of  the  essence  of  His  religion  who 
said.  "Love  one  another  as  I  have  loved  you,"  and 


CHRISTIAN  SOCIAL  ETHICS  287 

who  loved  all  men  with  the  love  of  sacrifice.  Ex-Presi- 
dent Patton  was  right  when  he  said  that  the  things  of 
social  ethics  are  things  which  belong  on  the  ground-floor 
in  God's  House.  It  is  true  that,  as  Uhlhorn  wrote  in 
"Christian  Charity  in  the  Ancient  Church,"  it  was 
"  first  love  "  with  those  early  believers.  "  Youth  does  not 
reflect,  it  acts  from  the  direct  impulses  arising  from 
its  present  abundant  vitality,  and  so  it  was  with  the 
charity  of  the  period."  But  it  was  also  a  "wonderful 
work"  of  the  Lord,  the  Spirit.  We  must  regard  it  as  a 
type  of  the  free,  yet  wisely  controlled  and  regulated 
life  of  love  in  the  Spirit,  which  should  be  hereafter. 

Our  duty  then  as  priests  and  people,  teachers  and 
learners,  all  possessing  the  Spirit  for  inspiration  and 
for  guidance,  is  to  provide  a  large  space  on  the  ground- 
floor  for  these  same  social  duties  in  Christ;  to  be 
always  asking  how  that  prophetic  moral  and  spiritual 
miracle  can  best  and  soonest  find  its  realization  in  the 
world  which  Christ  came,  not  merely  to  save  at  last,  but 
to  make  now,  and  in  every  possible  way,  happy  and  blest. 
We  need  to  pray  over  it  together;  to  call  upon  each 
other  to  mark  the  slow  progress  made  from  year  to  year. 
Great  tact  and  patience  are  required;  and  one  can 
learn  much  of  both  from  Christ's  method.  His  blessed 
mother  had  sung,  "He  hath  exalted  them  of  low  de- 
gree; He  hath  filled  the  hungry  with  good  things,"  and 
He  at  once  began  to  teach  saying,  "Blessed  be  ye  poor; 
yours  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven ;  the  poor  have  the  Gospel 
preached  to  them."  But  he  was  too  wise,  and  kind  to 
them,  to  say  just  how  much  the  "kingdom,"  in  His 
own  mind  and  purpose,  included  of  benefit  and  of  joy. 
His  Apostle  to  the  Gentiles  was  in  like  manner  patient 
and  tactful.  How  sorely  he  must  have  felt  the  want  of 


288         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

social  reform  of  every  kind  among  the  Nations;  the 
degradation  of  the  home  life,  the  shame  and  pity  of 
slavery,  and  other  pagan  abuses  and  miseries!  Yet 
how  discerning,  discrete,  and  self-controlled  he  was, 
by  the  aid  of  the  Spirit  of  Wisdom,  in  his  method  of 
meeting  the  difficulties!  It  was  that  self-same  manner 
of  sowing  the  "seed,  which  is  Christ,"  and  awaiting 
its  springing  up,  and  the  fruit  of  it,  to  which  reference 
has  been  made  in  a  preceding  section. 

Should  not  our  method  of  teaching  and  influencing 
be  a  like  one?  Should  it  not  be  generally  a  method 
of  exhibiting  principles,  and  inspiring  new  and  higher 
motives,  without  going  much  into  details  or  discussing 
single  cases?  The  subject  is  naturally  complicated  and 
difficult,  and  appears  to  grow  more  so  as  time  goes  on. 
It  is  a  question  whether  Professor  Richard  T.  Ely's 
word,  in  his  admirable  work  on  ''Social  Aspects  of 
Christianity,"  "I  should  say  that  half  of  the  time 
of  a  theological  student  should  be  devoted  to  social 
science,"  does  not  go  too  far.  The  result  might  be  a 
more  frequent  hearing  of  the  disagreeable  remark, 
"I  wish  our  rector  and  the  clergy  in  general  would 
confine  themselves  to  preaching  the  simple  Gospel." 

Beyond  question  the  simple  Gospel  includes  the 
truths  which  underlie  social  science;  and  men,  and 
women  too,  if  not  many  children  besides,  need  remind- 
ing of  these  truths.  Some  one  has  said,  ''Predestina- 
tion is  believed  in  by  the  rich  in  one  respect  anyway, 
and  that  is  in  respect  to  the  poor."  Not  a  few  in 
our  day  need  to  be  told  that  the  Scriptural  predes- 
tination is  "not  favoritism,  but  election  to  responsi- 
bility." They  may  be  interested  to  hear  a  sermon  on 
the  text,  "Thou  shalt  remember  the  Lord  thy  God; 


CHRISTIAN  SOCIAL  ETHICS  289 

for  it  is  He  that  gave  thee  power  to  get  wealth,"  glad 
to  be  taught  that  they  are  elected  to  be  well-off  and 
comfortable,  that  they  may  co-operate  in  the  work  of 
bettering  the  condition  of  such  as  are  not  so,  precisely 
as  they  have  been  called  to  faith  in  Christ  chiefly  that 
they  may  be  the  means  of  bringing  others  to  Him. 

Maybe  they  will  listen  patiently  when  Peile  is  quoted 
saying,  "Most  of  the  tricks  and  immoralities  of  trade 
are  due  to  the  increasing  stress  of  competition, "  and 
that  "It  is  the  ordinary  consumer  who  is  largely  to 
blame  for  this  excessive  competition  through  the  pre- 
vailing passion  for  cheap  bargains";  and  finally,  that 
"The  responsibility  of  deciding  how  trade  should  be 
carried  on  lies  upon  the  conscience  and  intelligence  of 
the  general  public."  Business  men  will  not  resent  it, 
when  the  clergy,  acknowledging  the  difficulty  of  the 
subject  in  general,  and  their  own  want  of  knowledge 
of  details,  and  of  leisure  to  study  them,  earnestly  invoke 
prayerful  reflection  and  co-operation  on  the  part  of 
the  laity.  Will  not  the  women  in  our  congregation, — 
even  the  least  thoughtful  and  sympathetic  of  them, — 
listen  kindly  to  Professor  Ely's  story  of  the  lady  in 
the  church  society  meeting  who  sat  silent  while  the 
others  discussed  the  servant-girl  question,  and  finally 
said,  "Really  I  have  no  trouble  with  servants."  "How 
is  that?"  all  exclaimed.  Finally  she  confessed  that 
she  made  her  servants  a  matter  of  prayer,  and  asked 
that  she  might  be  taught  her  duty  to  them.  "Your 
duty!"  was  the  surprised  exclamation;  but  a  new 
light  began  to  dawn  on  them.  Some  confessed  that 
they  had  asked  the  Lord  to  send  them  good  servants, 
but  no  one  else  had  ever  asked  to  know  her  duty 
to  them. 

19 


290         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

Uhlhorn,  commenting  on  the  past  slow  progress  of 
Christians  in  working  out  social  problems,  says: 

"Not  till  the  Reformation  was  the  source  returned  to,  the 
primitive  Christian  notions  of  riches  and  poverty,  of  property 
and  alms,  of  work  and  vocation  revived,  and  consequently  new 
fountains  of  active  love  unsealed.  These  notions,  however,  are 
very  far  from  having  been  fully  carried  out.  *  *  *  The  first 
duty  of  our  age  is  to  realize  in  action  the  evangelical  and  reformed 
ideas  concerning  charity  and  the  relief  of  the  poor,  in  connection 
with  those  concerning  calling  and  work,  wages  and  property. 
Beginnings,  thank  God,  exist.  Would  that  they  may  but 
develop  with  increasing  power!"  (Page  398.) 

Both  North  and  South  become  each  year  more  grate- 
ful to  God  that  the  evil  which  so  weighed  on  the  soul 
of  Whittier  has  been  forever  removed,  but  other  social 
troubles  remain  to  distress  us,  and  certain  of  his  lines 
"On  a  Prayer  Book"  may,  in  view  of  these  troubles, 
touch  not  least  the  Prayer  Book  worshipper.  First 
come  words  regarding  the  "sweet  ritual,  beautiful 
but  dead",  and  holy  hymns  from  which  the  life  has 
gone  out  because  of  the  absence  of  humanity,  and  then, 

"O  heart  of  mine,  keep  patience!     Looking  forth, 

As  from  the  Mount  of  Vision,  I  behold, 
Pure,  just,  and  free,  the  Church  of  Christ  on  earth, — 

The  Martyr's  dream,  the  golden  age  foretold! 
And  found,  at  last,  the  mystic  Graal  I  see, 

Brimmed  with  His  blessing,  pass  from  lip  to  lip 

In  sacred  pledge  of  human  fellowship; 

And  over  all  the  songs  of  angels  hear, — 

Songs  of  the  love  that  casteth  out  all  fear, — 

Songs  of  the  Gospel  of  Humanity! 

Lo,  in  the  midst,  with  the  same  look  He  wore, 

Healing  and  blessing  on  Gennesaret's  shore, 

Stands  the  Consoler,  soothing  every  pain, 
Making  all  burdens  light,  and  breaking  every  chain." 


CHRISTIAN  SOCIAL  ETHICS  291 

Not  in  divine  poetry,  however,  but  in  the  divine 
Paraclete,  will  be  found  truest  inspiration  and  the  hope 
of  victory.     The   noblest   poems   of   Humanity  ever 
written,  and  the  most  eloquent  sermons  ever  preached 
on    it,    the   soundest    treatises   on    Christian    Ethics 
yet  composed,  cannot  change  selfish  and  prejudiced 
hearts,  without  Christ's  Spirit;  Christ's  own  humane 
words  and  example  cannot.     All  these  are  like  "the 
clay"  with  which  He  anointed  the  eyes  of  the  blind. 
For  it  was  not  the  clay,  but  the  accompanying  power  of 
the  Spirit  "given  without  measure"  to  Christ  which, 
as  we  all  know,  did  the  work.     So  it  is  now  with  those 
"miracles  greater  than"  His  own  miracles,  which  He 
promised  His  people  should  perform  in  the  Spirit's 
era,  and  which  we  must  all  pray  and  labor  to  perform 
in  the  Spirit;  nor  are  there  many  greater,  and  therefore 
more  difficult,  than  this  one  of  raising  the  "  standard 
of  life  of    the  weaker  members"    of  our   redeemed 
humanity.     It  is  just  these   "master-thoughts"  and 
efforts  of  "corporate  obligation  and  corporate  inter- 
dependence," that  are  next  to  impossible,    because  at 
least  nine  out  of  ten  Christians  are  quite  blind  to  their 
existence.     Therefore,  while  we  talk  and  labor,  that 
is,  make  and  use  the  clay,  we  must  invoke  the  Spirit, 
and  believe  in  His  power  and  good-will  more  than  in 
our  clay.     It  is  His  affair  more  than  it  is  ours:   for  all 
fellowship  and  communion  in  heaven  and  on  earth 
and  the  resulting  community  of  feeling  and  action,  is 
"the  Communion  of  the  Holy  Ghost." 

"O  Most  Holy  Trinity,  in  the  ever  flowing  abundance 
of  Thy  Love  sending  forth  the  Holy  Ghost  the  Paraclete, 
to  create  and  form  Thy  Church,  the  mystical  Body  of 
Christ;  grant  to  us  to  be  ever  fervent  in  the  Unity  of 


292         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

the  Spirit,  that  always  abiding  in  Thy  worship  and 
service,  we  may  grow  more  and  more  steadfast  in  Faith, 
Hope,  and  Charity,  more  and  more  patient  and  active 
in  all  good  works  to  the  honour  and  glory  of  Thy  name, 
through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.  Amen.  ("Short 
Office  of  the  Holy  Ghost.") 


OUT  OF  DOOR  SPIRIT-TRUTHS 

And  Isaac  went  out  to  meditate  in  the  field  at  the  eventide. — 
Gen.  24  :  63. 

And  Moses  went  up  unto  God  and  the  Lord  called  unto  him 
out  of  the  mountain. — Exod.  19  :  3. 

They  that  go  down  to  the  sea  in  ships,  these  see  the  works 
of  the  Lord,  and  his  wonders  in  the  deep. — Ps.  107  :  23,  24. 

The  trees  of  the  Lord  are  full  of  sap;  the  cedars  of  Lebanon, 
which  he  hath  planted;  where  the  birds  make  their  nests. — 
Ps.  104  :  16,  17. 

The  only  objects  of  which  the  mind  and  the  heart  never  grow 
weary  are  rural  ones. — Rousseau. 

One  clergyman  was  heard  to  say  to  another,  "your 
sermons  always  take  me  out  of  doors."  Now  so  to 
teach  is  to  be  a  priest  of  nature,  and  of  the  Creator- 
Spirit.  The  service  itself  begins  at  once  to  take  us  out 
of  doors  in  the  Venite:  "The  sea  is  his,  and  he  made  it; 
and  his  hands  prepared  the  dry  land."  The  Bible  does 
this,  from  Genesis  to  Revelation.  The  first  tells  how 
"God  planted  a  garden  eastward  in  Eden,  and  there 
he  put  the  man  whom  he  had  formed";  the  last 
describes  New  Jerusalem,  with  its  "pure  river  of  water 


OUT  OF  DOOR  SPIRIT-TRUTHS  293 

of  life,"  and  "the  leaves  of  the  tree  for  the  healing  of 
the  nations."  The  sixty-fifth  Psalm,  the  one  hundred 
and  fourth  Psalm,  in  fact  the  Psalms  as  a  whole,  keep 
us  in  close  touch  with  the  outdoor  life. 

It  is  the  same  with  the  Gospels.  We  journey  to 
Bethlehem  with  Joseph  and  Mary,  journey  with  the 
wise  men;  journey  down  into  Egypt,  and  then  to 
Nazareth,  with  the  infant  Christ.  In  His  ministry 
our  Lord  is  always  abroad,  now  teaching  on  the  mount, 
now  going  into  a  mountain  to  pray,  again,  standing  by 
the  lake  and  pointing  at  the  little  white-walled  towns  on 
the  hill-side  lighted  up  by  the  setting  sun,  or  at  a 
candle  some  one  has  lighted  on  the  shore,  and  drawing 
from  them  first  lessons  on  the  duty  of  His  Church  to 
be  everyway  a  missionary  power  for  Him.  "So,"  He 
says, — and  we  can  almost  see  His  outstretched  hand, — 
"So  let  your  light  shine  before  men."  Tempted  and 
victorious  at  the  beginning  in  the  desert,  He  is  tempted 
and  victorious  finally  in  a  garden  under  the  light  of  the 
Passover  moon. 

In  the  Acts,  and  in  St.  Paul's  Epistles  it  is  much 
the  same.  We  are  out  of  doors,  and  ever  on  the  go 
while  the  field  of  action  widens.  The  first  Whitsunday 
sermon  ever  preached,  and  the  great  service  of  Baptism, 
which  resulted  from  it,  could  only  have  been  in  the 
open.  The  most  notable  sermon  of  the  Apostle  to  the 
Nations  was  that  on  Mars'  Hill.  His  three  missionary 
journeys,  and  the  inspired  letters  composed  at  different 
places,  and  addressed  to  Churches  in  Asia  and  Europe, 
keep  the  New  Testament  student,  and  attentive 
worshippers  in  the  second  half  of  the  Church's  Year, 
mentally  journeying  and  sight-seeing. 

In  summer  and  autumn  many  are  working,  many 


294         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

playing,  in  the  open  air.  It  is  a  time  of  travel,  of 
sojourning  by  sea  and  lake  and  mountain,  of  garden- 
life  and  porch-life.  How  profitable  then  so  to  teach 
in  Sunday  School  and  in  Church,  after  the  outdoor 
fashion  of  the  Master,  as  to  attract  men  and  children 
indoors,  bringing  Nature  into  Church  to  illustrate  the 
things  of  Grace !  The  thoughts  set  down  in  these  pages 
have  been  day  by  day  "taken  to  walk"  with  the  hope 
and  prayer  that  they  might  be  the  truer  and  healthier 
for  it.  The  purpose  in  this  section  is  to  touch  upon 
three  subjects  which  in  a  sense  belong  out  under  God's 
sky,  or  above  it:  the  Nineteenth  Psalm;  the  Ellipse  as  a 
figure  of  the  perfect  life,  according  to  the  law  and  the 
prophets,  namely,  the  golden  rule;  and  the  Angels. 

The  Nineteenth  Psalm,  beside  being  one  of  the 
three  which  make  up  the  noble  Third  Selection,  is  the 
first  of  the  Christmas  Day  Psalms.  "In  the  Latin 
Church  it  is  appointed  for  use  also  on  the  festivals  of 
the  Ascension  and  of  Trinity  Sunday;  so  likewise  it 
was  in  the  Sarum  Use;  and  in  the  Gregorian  Use  it 
is  appointed  for  the  Annunciation."  (Wordsworth, 
quoted  by  Perowne.)  It  is  easy,  as  in  the  case  of  Psalm 
Twenty-three,  to  believe  that  it  was  composed  by  King 
David  himself, — that  the  thought  came  to  him  already 
when,  a  shepherd  lad,  he  beheld  the  sun  rising  above 
the  eastern  mountains.  There  are  few  children,  even 
few  adults,  who  do  not  need  to  have  pointed  out  to 
them  the  exquisite  parallel,  which  the  sacred  writer 
would  have  men  feel,  between  the  law  that  regulates 
the  movements  of  the  heavenly  bodies, — enables  them 
to  declare  the  glory  of  God  and  bear  their  silent  yet 
eloquent  witness  to  human  faith  concerning  His  majesty 


OUT  OF  DOOR  SPIRIT-TRUTHS  295 

and  power, — and  the  higher  and  more  spiritual  law 
which  converts,  cleanses,  enlightens  and  regulates 
the  soul.  What  would  become  of  the  world  we  live 
in,  and  of  us,  if  the  sun  did  not  rise  to-morrow  at 
exactly  the  appointed  moment,  or  if  rising  it  failed  for 
a  day  to  send  out  its  warmth  and  light,  and  pour 
forth  its  chemical  and  life-sustaining  properties  upon  the 
earth's  surface?  On  the  other  hand,  if  each  man, 
woman,  and  child  in  the  world  were  as  faithful  to 
God's  commandments  as  the  heavenly  orbs  are  strict 
to  keep  in  their  appointed  courses,  and  perform  their 
tasks,  what  a  pure  and  perfectly  harmonious  life  our 
existence  would  be!  Are  there  any  even  among  gen- 
uine Christians,  who  do  not  at  least  need  to  be  reminded 
of  this  truth?  Is  not  the  Spirit's  season  a  time  to 
remind  them,  since  He,  who  "actuates"  what  the  Son 
"regulates,"  and  the  Father  "originates,"  and  who 
is  Himself  the  law  of  the  celestial  system,  is  also  the 
Holy  Spirit,  and  the  law  of  the  spirit  of  life  in  us? 
We  know  what  He  does  for  the  sun  and  the  stars  in 
the  kingdom  of  nature: 

"Thou  dost  preserve  the  stars  from  wrong; 

And  the  most  ancient  heavens,  through  Thee  axe  fresh  and  strong." 

And  He  does  the  same  for  us  in  the  kingdom  of  grace. 

The  second  topic  lies  not  far  removed  logically  or 
analogically  from  the  first.  One  needs  not  to  ascend 
mountain  peaks  or  go  down  to  the  sea  in  ships  to 
"see  the  works  of  the  Lord"  and  His  wonders.  Lying 
in  a  hammock  or  on  the  grass,  of  a  summer  night,  he 
may  be  impressed  with  them,  especially  if  learned, 
even  a  little,  in  science.  The  planets,  we  are  taught, 


296         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

move  not  in  circles  but  ellipses.  And  the  geometrical 
formula, — which  is  a  formula  of  the  mighty  Spirit, — 
is  "a  curve  such  that  the  sum  of  the  distances  of  any 
point  from  two  given,  called  the/oa,  is  equal  to  a  given 
line."  This  truth  of  geometry  and  of  astronomy 
corresponds  to  the  Scripture  truth  in  the  rule,  "Thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself."  Self  and  the 
neighbour  are  the  two  foci  which  must  govern  the 
Christian's  life  with  the  brother  man.  To  be  self- 
centred  is  selfish  and  unchristian;  on  the  other  hand 
God  would  not  have  us,' — if  one  may  coin  the  word, — 
neighbour-centred.  Christ  Himself  implied  that  self- 
love,  rightly  understood,  is  not  selfishness.  My  first 
duty  is  to  God,  and  my  own  soul ;  more  than  this,  to 
develop  and  cultivate  my  own  noblest  capacities;  nor 
need  I  fear  to  love  too  much  my  new  and  better  self 
in  the  Spirit.  The  oval  is  a  form  of  the  ellipse,  and  the 
eggs  on  the  table  at  the  morning  meal  may  be  more 
than  a  suggestion  of  our  Lord's  resurrection  and  our 
own  in  Him  through  the  Spirit;  even  an  emblem  of  the 
life  we  should  live  together  throughout  the  day,  in  the 
home  and  everywhere. 

The  truth  which  we  may  say  peeps  above  the  horizon 
where  the  Dauphin,  in  King  Henry  V,  says, 

"Self-love,  my  liege,  is  not  so  vile  a  sin 
As  self -neglecting," 

comes  to  fuller  view  in  Measure  for  Measure,  when 
Isabel,  determined  to  keep  her  sacred  self  "unspotted 
from  the  world, "  replies  to  Angelo, 

"Better  it  were,  a  brother  died  at  once, 
Than  that  a  sister,  by  redeeming  him, 
Should  die  forever." 


OUT  OF  DOOR  SPIRIT-TRUTHS  297 

God  would  not  have  us  annihilate  ourselves  even 
before  Him,  or  for  Him,  and  strictly  speaking,  neither 
is  the  worship,  nor  the  loving  service  of  God,  self- 
annihilation.  Is  it  not  safe  to  say  that  if  Christians 
could  but  rise  by  the  divine  Spirit's  help  to  the  height 
of  loving  their  neighbours  as  themselves,  the  Day  of 
the  Lord  would  be  almost  in  sight? 

The  above  given  quotation  from  Measure  for 
Measure  is  used  by  Professor  George  Harris  in  his  work 
on  Moral  Evolution  (page  141)  and  readers  are  referred 
to  his  thorough  discussion  of  self-realization  and 
altruism  in  Chapter  VI. 

None  of  the  Church's  services  take  us  mentally 
abroad  more  effectually  than  the  one  which  falls  on 
September  29th,  Saint  Michael  and  All  Angels.  It 
emphasizes  a  truth  hi  which  natural  science  makes  it 
each  year  more  natural  to  believe.  The  air  and  the 
soil  are  now  known  to  contain  millions  upon  millions, 
and  millions  of  millions,  of  living  creatures.  The 
wonders  of  the  microscope  minister  to  faith,  as  truly  as 
do  the  wonders  of  the  telescope, — that  is  to  say,  where 
"the  will  to  believe"  already  exists.  The  innumerable 
hosts  of  animate  beings,  large  and  small,  of  different 
grades  of  strength  and  intelligence,  all  in  their  way 
made  for  a  practical  purpose, — ministering, — cause 
the  existence  of  multitudes  of  angels  to  appear  the 
more  probable.  They  also  enhance  in  our  thoughts 
the  appropriateness  of  that  majestic  Old  Testament 
title  of  God,  "the  Lord  of  hosts":  "Bless  ye  the  Lord, 
ye  his  angels  that  excel  in  strength,  that  do  his  com- 
mandments, hearkening  unto  the  voice  of  his  word. 
Bless  ye  the  Lord,  all  ye  his  hosts;  ye  ministers  of 


298         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

his,  that  do  his  pleasure."  Theology  and  angelology 
are  intertwined  in  the  Scriptures  almost  like  two 
strands  in  a  cord.  To  untwine  and  separate  them  as 
seen  in  patriarchal  and  later  history,  in  our  Lord's 
earthly  life,  in  the  life  and  work  of  the  Apostles,  in 
The  Revelation,  is  in  effect  to  destroy  the  record. 

The  Holy  Ghost  it  was  who  as  a  Creator-Spirit, 
accomplishing  the  Father's  will,  created  the  angels 
free,  as  man  afterwards  was  made  free,  and  to  His 
grief  also  it  was  that  certain  of  them  abused  the  noble 
gift,  and  by  ambition  fell.  No  wonder  is  it  that  this 
led  to  "war  in  heaven,"  as  pride  and  ambition  have 
been  a  cause  of  war  on  earth;  or  that  fallen  angels, 
jealous  of  man  in  his  innocence,  should  seek  to  tempt 
him  likewise  into  sin;  and  no  wonder  that  the  good 
angels,  beholding  a  great  plan  of  divine  redemption 
unfolding  in  human  history,  should  not  merely  desire, 
as  St.  Peter  said— (1st  Pet.  1  :  12),  to  "look  into"  it, 
but  to  have  a  hand  in  it,  and  that,  as  our  Lord  intimated 
(Mat.  18  :  10),  angels  of  high  rank  and  near  to  the 
heavenly  throne  were  put  in  charge  of  Christ's  "little 
ones,"  children  in  age,  or  children  in  understanding,  and 
morally.  The  Collect  which  speaks  of  the  services 
of  angels  and  men  being  "constituted  in  a  wonderful 
order,"  and  prays  that  they  may  indeed  "succour  and 
defend  us,"  is  a  Gregorian  Collect,  and  probably  com- 
posed by  Gregory;  since  he  preached  a  notable  sermon 
on  the  wonderful  order,  and  on  the  different  ranks  of 
the  angels,  as  made  evident  in  the  Scriptures. 

Dean  Alford's  suggestion  is  valuable,  that  "angels, 
having  only  the  contrast  between  good  and  evil,  with- 
out the  power  of  conversion  from  sin  to  righteousness, 
when  witnesses  of  such  a  turning  to  God  would  long 


OUT  OF  DOOR  SPIRIT-TRUTHS  299 

to  penetrate  the  knowledge  of  the  means  by  which  it 
is  brought  about." 

The  real  wonder  is,  that  men  who  are  watched  over 
and  as  it  were  waited  upon  by  angels,  and  who  being 
unlike  them  in  certain  aspects  are  so  like  them  in 
others,  should  not  merely  care  little  to  "look  into" 
their  life-problem,  but  even  question  their  existence. 
The  Bible  being  so  full  of  allusions  to  them,  it  seems 
only  natural  that  men  should  long  to  "penetrate" 
their  secret.  Gregory  does  not  seem  to  have  possessed 
a  speculative  or  specially  theological  mind,  but  rather  a 
religious  and  practical  mind;  and  thoughtful,  prayerful 
contemplation  of  his  theme  can  only  increase  our  love 
and  gratitude  to  God. 

This  can  but  be  one  of  the  subjects  to  which  we 
may  apply  Bishop  Westcott's  assertion,  that  the  serious 
study  of  doctrine  is  the  noblest  exercise  of  reason,  and 
Professor  Curteis's  thought,  that  only  faithless  reason 
is  not  to  be  trusted.  Certainly  we  may  learn  humility 
from  those  mighty  angels  who  devote  themselves  to 
guarding  and  ministering  to  Christ's  little  ones,  and 
learn  from  them  to  shun  that  uncomfortable  and 
dangerous  fault,  envy;  for  that  Christ  "took  not  on 
Him  the  nature  of  angels,"  but  human  nature,  and  that 
we  to  whom  they  minister,  and  in  whose  behalf  they 
even  wage  war  with  wicked  angels,  have  been  made 
but  a  little  lower  than  they,  and  through  union  with 
the  Divine  shall  at  last  be  "crowned  with  glory  and 
honour,"  might  stir  envy  in  beings  less  confirmed  in 
magnanimity  and  holy  submission. 

Good  angels  could  tell  much  to  make  men  surer  of 
virtue  being  its  own  reward ;  and  bad  angels  much  of  sin, 
and  envy  especially,  being  its  own  quick  punishment. 


300         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

CHURCH  ARCHITECTURE 

And  thou  shalt  make  a  vail  of  blue,  and  purple  and 
scarlet,  *  *  *  and  the  vail  shall  divide  unto  you  between 
the  holy  place  and  the  most  holy. — Exod.  26  :  31,  33. 

Your  iniquities  have  separated  between  you  and  your  God. — 
Isa.  59  :  2. 

I  am  the  way. — John  14  :  6. 

By  his  own  blood  he  entered  into  the  holy  place,  having 
obtained  eternal  redemption  for  us. — Heb.  9  :  12. 

The  vail  of  the  temple  was  rent  in  twain  from  the  top  to  the 
bottom.— Matt.  27  :  51. 

Who  made  there  (by  his  one  oblation  of  himself  once  for  all 
offered)  a  full,  perfect  and  sufficient  sacrifice,  oblation,  and 
satisfaction  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world. — Communion 
Office. 

Having  therefore,  brethren,  boldness  to  enter  into  the  holiest 
by  the  blood  of  Jesus,  by  «,  new  and  living  way  which  he  hath 
consecrated  for  us  through  the  vail,  that  is  to  say,  his  flesh; 
and  having  an  high  priest  over  the  house  of  God;  let  us  draw 
near  with  a  true  heart,  having  full  assurance  of  faith. — Heb. 
10  :  19-22. 

Ye  also  as  living  stones  are  built  up  a  spiritual  house,  an 
holy  priesthood,  to  offer  up  spiritual  sacrifices,  acceptable  to 
God  by  Jesus  Christ.— 1st  Pet.  2  :  5. 

The  term  "frozen  music,"  applied  as  we  have  already 
noted  to  architecture,  is  not  without  meaning;  and 
yet  the  dominant  thought  and  motive  in  genuine 
catholic  and  Christian  architecture,  namely  man's 
drawing  near  to  the  Father  through  the  Self-offering 
of  His  dear  Son  in  human  nature,  is  of  all  warm  truths 
to  be  laid  to  our  cold  hearts  the  very  warmest. 

Writers  on  the  subject  say  that,  whereas  architecture 
had  its  origin  in  religious  feelings  and  observances,  its 
noblest  monuments  among  the  nations  of  antiquity 


CHURCH  ARCHITECTURE  301 

being  temples  to  the  gods,  the  pointed  arch  in  particular, 
invented  or  introduced  in  the  twelfth  century,  owed 
its  diffusion  and  progress  to  the  Christian  religion. 
Moreover,  they  say  that  the  idea  is  by  many  thought 
to  have  been  derived  from  the  interlacing  of  the 
branches  of  trees  in  the  forest.  It  is  not  difficult  to 
accept  the  suggestion,  for  one  who  has  himself  expe- 
rienced Bryant's  feeling  beautifully  expressed  in  "A 
Forest  Hymn."  Do  not  those  influences  to  which  he 
gives  the  name  sacred, — influences  of  "the  stilly  twi- 
light" and  "the  gray  old  trunks  mingling  their  mossy 
boughs";  of  the  sound  of  "the  invisible  breath  which 
sways  all  their  green  tops,"  stealing  over  one,  and 
bowing 

"His  spirit  with  the  thought  of  boundless  power, 
And  inaccessible  majesty," 

frequently  come  to  the  Churchman  in  sanctuaries 
which  are  truly  churchlike?  Together  with  these 
come  other  impressions,  of  which  Whittier  has  sung, 
suggested  by  our  Lord's  promise  to  be  with  even  the 
two  or  three  gathered  together  in  His  Name: 

"In  one  desire 
The  blending  lines  of  prayer  aspire;" 


and  again, 


"He  findeth  not  who  seeks  his  own, 
The  soul  is  lost  that's  saved  alone." 


Returning  to  the  more  strictly  architectural  sug- 
gestions, pointed  arches  suggest  many  raised  hands 
folded  in  prayer,  as  truly  as  they  do  boughs  interlaced 
in  the  deep  woods.  And  often  the  idea  must  have  come 


302         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

to  men,  that  long  naves,  like  those  in  our  churches, 
leading  to  a  generous  Chancel  and  the  Sacrarium 
beyond,  with  its  altar-table  and  bare  cross,  constantly 
repeat  to  the  eyes  and  the  heart  the  story  of  the  Incar- 
nation and  the  consummating  Act  of  the  Atonement 
followed  by  the  Resurrection  and  Ascension.  Christ 
was,  and  is,  the  Way.  The  open  rood-screen,  if  there 
be  any  at  all,  continually  reminds  us  that  through  His 
flesh,  that  is,  His  humanity,  perfected  in  suffering 
obedience,  the  Way  is  now  open.  The  ancient  vail, — 
the  vail  of  our  sins, — being  taken  away,  the  divine 
majesty  is  no  longer  "inaccessible."  We  "have 
boldness  and  access  with  confidence  by  the  faith  of 
Him," — can  not  only  see  through  but  go  through,  as 
it  were,  into  the  "heavenly  places,"  and  enjoy  already 
in  this  life  fellowship  with  the  Father  and  with  His 
Son,  in  the  Spirit. 

A  perfect  Church  intelligently  interpreted  will  be, 
like  sacred  music  so  interpreted,  one  of  the  Spirit's 
noblest  auxiliaries  to  faith.  It  preaches  eloquently 
saving  truths  which  at  times  might  otherwise  not  be 
proclaimed  at  all, 


THE  TRANSFIGURATION  OF  CHRIST 

And  Jesus  taketh  with  him  Peter  and  James  and  John,  and 
bringeth  them  up  into  a  high  mountain  apart  by  themselves: 
and  he  was  transfigured  before  them. — Mark  9  :  2. 

We  wait  for  a  Saviour,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  shall 
fashion  anew  the  body  of  our  humiliation,  that  it  may  be  con- 
formed to  the  body  of  his  glory.— Phil.  3  :  21. 


THE  TRANSFIGURATION  OF  CHRIST  303 

It  ia  sown  in  weakness;  it  is  raised  in  power;  it  is  sown  a 
natural  body;  it  is  raised  a  spiritual  body. — 1st  Cor.  15  :  43,  44. 

When  Christ,  who  is  our  life,  shall  be  manifested,  then  shall 
ye  also  be  manifested  with  him  in  glory. — Col.  3  :  4. 

Then  shall  the  righteous  shine  forth  as  the  sun  in  the  kingdom 
of  their  Father.  He  that  hath  ears  to  hear,  let  him  hear. — 
Matt.  13  :  43. 

Ascension  was  as  much  the  natural  way  for  Jesus  as  death 
is  for  us.  He  might  ascend  with  the  two  who  talked  with  Him. 
But  to  ascend  now  would  be  to  ascend  without  us.  Down 
below  on  the  plain  He  sees  mankind,  crushed  beneath  the  weight 
of  sin  and  death.  Shall  He  abandon  them?  He  cannot  ascend 
unless  He  carry  them  with  Him;  and  in  order  to  do  this  He 
braves  the  other  issue  (exodus)  which  He  can  only  accomplish 
at  Jerusalem. — Godet. 

The  Transfiguration  may  be  regarded  as  designed  to  strengthen 
the  hearts,  first,  of  those  who  witnessed  it,  and  then  of  all  those 
to  whom  their  witness  came.  But  in  addition  to  these  it  has 
ever  been  contemplated  in  the  Church  as  a  prophecy  of  the 
glory  which  the  saints  shall  have  in  the  resurrection.  As  was 
the  body  of  Christ  on  the  Mount  so  shall  their  bodies  be. — 
Archbishop  Trench. 

While  the  Feast  of  the  Transfiguration  would  be  in 
place  in  Lent,  near  the  Holy  Week,  because  our  Lord 
was  strengthened  by  it,  in  the  Spirit,  to  undergo  His 
sufferings,  and  the  faith  of  His  disciples  strengthened  to 
witness  them,  we  cannot  but  see,  that  it  is  still  more 
emphatically  in  place  in  this  Season.  For  it  was  the 
Spirit's  function  to  give  to  the  Son  of  Man  already 
then  an  earnest  of  the  glory  that  should  be  His  after  His 
Ascension;  as  it  would  belong  to  the  Spirit  to  raise 
Him  from  the  dead,  and  to  make  Him  forever  glorious 
as  Man  in  heaven.  Moreover,  Christ  is  only  "the 
first-fruits"  of  the  great  harvest  of  Humanity  redeemed; 


304         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

and  it  will  be  the  Spirit's  joy  to  fulfil  the  promise  of 
the  Scripture,  and  "fashion  anew  the  body  of  our 
humiliation,  that  it  may  be  conformed  to  the  body  of 
Christ's  glory"  in  the  great  Resurrection  Day. 

It  is  plain  that  the  Epiphany  Collect  does  not  bring 
out  the  entire  truth  and  object  of  our  praying,  in  the 
phrase  "fruition  of  thy  glorious  Godhead";  since  our 
Saviour's  manhood,  as  the  scene  on  the  holy  mount 
shows,  is  glorious,  and  the  saints  must  have  complete 
fruition  of  that.  Equally  true  is  it,  that  the  Collect 
for  Transfiguration  Day,  beautiful  as  it  is,  falls  short 
in  this  point,  that  redeemed  mankind  will  be  privileged 
not  merely  to  "behold,"  but  also  to  share  the  King's 
"beauty."  The  Bride  shall  herself  be  clothed  with  the 
splendour  that  is  His,  through  her  possession  of  His 
inward  life  in  the  Spirit.  Hymn  167  in  our  Book  is 
one  of  those  ancient  hymns  which  exhibit  in  a  simple 
and  real  way  the  beliefs  and  hopes  of  the  early 
Christians.  Gregory  (Moral,  xxxii.  6,  quoted  by 
Trench)  has,  "In  transfiguratione  quid  aliud  quam 
resurrectionis  ultima  gloria  nunciatur?"  Leo  the 
Great  has  a  similar  passage.  The  Greek  service-books 
reflect  the  same  thought;  and  the  first  and  third  verses 
of  the  venerable  hymn  which  we  sing, — or  may  sing, 
if  we  will, — are  as  follows: 

"O  wondrous  type!    O  vision  fair 
Of  glory  that  the  Church  shall  share, 
Which  Christ  upon  the  mountain  shows, 
Where  brighter  than  the  sun  He  glows! 

"With  shining  face  and  bright  array, 
Christ  deigns  to  manifest  to-day 
What  glory  shall  be  theirs  above, 
Who  joy  in  God  with  perfect  love." 


THE  TRANSFIGURATION  OF  CHRIST  305 

Our  Lord  was  evidently  transfigured  not  by  an 
outward  and  reflected  splendour,  but  by  an  inward 
one.  The  glory  shone  from  within,  and  it  was  the  glory 
of  a  perfect  and  a  triumphant  Manhood.  Now  it  is 
most  instructive  to  read  St.  Paul's  reference  (hi  Phil. 
3  :  21)  to  the  "change"  that  is  coming  to  Christians, 
hi  connection  with  what  he  has  said  before  regarding 
"perfection,"  and  pressing  "toward  the  mark";  it  is 
illuminating  to  study  St.  Peter's  description  (2d  Pet. 
1  :  16-18)  of  the  scene  on  "the  holy  mount"  in  connec- 
tion with  his  previous  words  concerning  escaping  "the 
corruption  that  is  in  the  world,"  not  being  "barren  nor 
unfruitful  hi  the  knowledge  of  Christ,"  not  being 
spiritually  nearsighted  in  respect  to  Christian  purity, 
and  making  "the  calling  and  election  sure."  For  so 
we  learn  the  practical  bearing  of  Christ's  transforma- 
tion on  our  transformation,  and  that  with  us  too  it  will 
be  from  within  outward.  By  the  Spirit's  help  we  are, 
as  it  were,  to  glorify  ourselves.  There  are  moments 
in  men's  lives, — who  has  not  witnessed  such? — when 
their  countenances  shine  with  a  light  distinctly  spiritual, 
coming  from  within,  and  transfiguring  their  faces. 
These  are  figures  of  that  better  thing  which  shall  come 
to  the  people. of  the  Lord  in  the  day  of  the  Lord;  when, 
as  it  reads  in  the  Book  of  Wisdom  (5  :  16),  "The  right- 
eous shall  receive  the  crown  of  royal  dignity,  and  the 
diadem  of  beauty  from  the  Lord's  hand." 

Ours  will  be  a  transfigured  and  glorified  Humanity, 
the  "spiritual  body",  which  is  but  the  natural  body 
"changed."  The  flower  is  a  transparent,  glorified,  leaf; 
and  the  Christ-life  when  it  flowers  out  in  us  will  be  the 
self-same  manhood  with  which  we  were  born,  renewed, 
changed,  and  made  more  lovable  through  our  new  birth 


306         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

and  development  in  Christ,  in  the  Spirit.  And  hereby 
we  know  that  our  transfiguration  is  assured,  by  the 
Spirit's  work  actually  going  on  in  us.  They  are  blest 
who,  recognizing  the  process  thus  going  on,  can  say 
with  St.  Peter,  not  "we  shall  be,"  but  "we  are,  par- 
takers,"— "I,  who  am  also  a  partaker  of  the  glory  that 
shall  be  revealed."  (1st  Pet.  5:1.)  When  such  is  our 
case,  we  can  better  realize  the  rich,  twofold,  meaning 
of  "the  Voice  from  the  excellent  glory."  For  "this  is 
my  beloved  Son  in  whom  I  am  well  pleased"  is  a  voice 
for  us,  as  truly  as  the  transfiguration  is  for  us.  In 
fact  the  latter  will  be  the  consequence  of  the  former. 
We  shall  be  obedient  sons,  honoured  and  glorified, 
shining  forth  as  the  sun  in  the  Father's  kingdom. 

Not  far  from  three  centuries  ago  Thomas  Case  in 
England  spoke  after  the  same  fashion  of  the  resur- 
rection. Such  glorious  things  were  spoken  by  God  of  it 
as  it  were  daring  presumption  to  have  reported  or 
believed,  if  He  had  not  said  them.  And  they  that 
would  secure  themselves  an  interest  in  the  glory  which 
shall  be  put  upon  the  saints'  bodies  in  the  resurrection 
should  labour  to  experience  this  beatifical  transfigura- 
tion first  in  their  souls,  on  this  side  of  the  grave. 

"It  is  good  for  us  to  be  here,"  Simon  Pe.ter  said,  and 
good  it  was,  in  itself  and  in  its  results.  But  the  final 
transformation  of  humanity  for  which  the  life  here, 
and  that  in  Paradise,  are  the  preparation,  will  be 
"far  better."  What  that  unending  future  with  Christ 
in  the  Spirit  shall  be  for  mankind  has  not  "entered  into 
the  heart"  of  prophet  or  of  poet,  nor  has  any  one 
dreamed  it.  This  we  can  say,  that  "God  is  not  a  man 
that  He  should  lie"  to  us  in  the  day  dreams,  or  in  the 
night  dreams. 


THE  TRANSFIGURATION  OF  CHRIST  307 

It  will  be  a  glorious  new  existence  socially,  a  great, 
new,  human  brotherhood.  Of  this  also  the  foundations 
are  being  laid  here  by  the  Spirit  of  Union  and  of 
Fellowship.  We  cannot  be  saved  alone  by  ourselves. 
Whittier's  word  must  not  be  forgotten: 

"The  soul  is  lost,  that's  saved  alone," 

St.  Peter's  word  must  not,  concerning  seeing  only 
"what  is  near,"  and  one  needs  to  add  to  this,  because 
spiritual  near-sightedness  and  spiritual  far-sighted- 
ness have  equally  unfortunate  results.  Many  plan 
and  labour  merely  for  the  present  life,  being  "blind" 
to  the  things  beyond.  Again  others  "  see  afar  off,"  and 
reflect  on  heavenly  joys,  while  they  have  neither  eyes 
to  see,  nor  ears  to  hear  of,  present  obligations.  How 
many  make  much  of  the  Communion  of  Saints  in 
Paradise,  who  make  little  of  the  Communion  of  Saints 
in  Christ's  Church  Militant !  To  pray  for  and  minister 
to  the  saints  who  are  here  is  the  more  pressing  duty,  and 
faithfully  performed  it  will  bear  richest  fruit  in  Paradise 
and  in  Heaven. 

In  all  these  spheres,  the  Holy  Spirit  is  personally, 
deeply,  interested.  It  is  His  affair  to  bring  to  pass 
the  complete  transfiguration  of  our  race,  of  which  the 
scene  on  the  Mount  was  the  type  and  prophecy. 
As  Dr.  Downer  has  said: 

"The  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  entered  upon  a  new  phase 
at  the  Coming  of  Christ  to  redeem  mankind.  It  will  enter  upon 
a  still  more  glorious,  and  a  final,  stage  at  the  Coming  of  Christ 
to  receive  His  Church.  For  this  the  Spirit  of  Grace  is  preparing 
souls  on  earth  and  souls  in  Paradise.  The  Second  Advent  will 
be  the  terminus  a  quo  of  this  stage  of  the  Holy  Spirit's  work, 
and  eternity  will  be  the  terminus  ad  quern;  for  we  cannot  conceive 
of  a  time  when  He  will  cease  to  perfect,  to  bless,  to  teach,  and 


308         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

to  glorify  the  saved.  Thus,  while  complete  in  one  sense,  the 
Spirit's  work  will  be  progressive  and  eternal  in  another" 
(page  331). 


GREGORY  AND  THE  LATIN  CHURCH 

While  gathering  and  reflecting  upon  the  material  for 
this  volume  it  has  been  borne  in  upon  me  more  and  more 
forcibly,  how  great  is  the  debt  of  Western  Christendom 
as  a  whole  to  the  Latin  Church,  and  in  particular  to  the 
first  Gregory.  It  is  an  obligation  never  to  be  ignored. 
Dean  Church's  fine  tribute  to  the  "one  old  man  far 
away"  has  been  given  in  the  section  on  Missions,  but 
the  subject  merits  further  treatment. 

It  is  not  a  debt  of  allegiance.  The  right  of  Rome 
to  this  allegiance,  as  ecclesiastical  history  clearly 
proves,  was  resisted  from  the  first.  But  the  obligation 
otherwise  is  a  different  matter,  and  is  large;  it  ought 
to  be  an  easy  and  pleasant  duty  to  acknowledge  it. 
It  is  in  good  measure  an  obligation  to  the  noblest  and 
most  saintly  bishop  Rome  has  ever  had,  to  whom  more 
than  to  any  man  except  St.  Paul  the  West  owes,  under 
God,  its  Church  life.  A.  H.  Hore  writes  (''History  of 
the  Church  Catholic,"  page  289) : 

"Augustine,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  he  was  not  a  great  man, 
nor  a  successful  missionary,  for  which  he  was  too  narrow-minded 
and  unconciliatory,  laid  the  foundation,  as  Bede  says,  'nobly,' 
of  the  English  Church.  He  renewed  the  union  which  the  English 
conquest  had  broken  with  Western  Christendom.  He  founded 
the  See  of  Canterbury  and  from  him  the  Church  of  England 
derives  the  succession  of  its  bishops.  He  laid  the  foundation  of 


GREGORY  AND  THE  LATIN  CHURCH'          309 

the  political  unity  of  England."  He  writes  (page  338):  "Eng- 
land never  forgot  its  debt  of  gratitude  to  Rome,  how  Gregory 
had  sent  St.  Augustine  to  found,  and  another  Roman  bishop  had 
sent  Archbishop  Theodore  to  organize,  the  National  Church." 

In  counting  up  the  items  of  our  indebtedness  to  the 
Latin  Church  in  the  early  tunes, — the  times  of  its 
spiritual  vigor  and  genuine  catholicity, — we  go  back 
naturally  to  three  eminent  bishops  of  Rome,  to  whom 
in  fact  we  all,  without  thinking  of  it,  go  back  every 
Sunday  and  all  the  days,  offering  prayers  which  they 
composed.  The  vigor  and  the  spirituality  of  the  pure 
Gospel  truth  were  in  those  men;  in  Leo,  in  Gelasius, 
in  Gregory.  The  Collects  coming  to  us  from  their 
Sacramentaries,  "live  and  move  and  have  their  being," 
Dean  Goulburn  said,  "in  the  very  atmosphere  of 
Holy  Scripture.  Always  in  the  centre  of  these  brief 
petitions  there's  a  truth,  or  thought, — and  a  funda- 
mental one, — which  is  distinctly  evangelical ;  and  asso- 
ciated with  it  we  find  a  desire,  a  need,  which  is  of  the 
atmosphere  of  the  time  when  the  prayer  originated." 

Their  days  were  days  of  storm  and  stress  such  as  the 
world  has  scarcely  ever  seen.  The  tribes  of  the  North 
were  beginning  to  pour  down  upon  the  decaying 
Roman  Empire.  The  period  was  close  at  hand  of 
which  Dean  Church  wrote:  "For  more  than  three  cen- 
turies it  seemed  as  if  the  world  and  human  society 
had  been  hopelessly  wrecked,  without  prospect  or  hope 
of  escape."  It  is  true  that  in  these  Collects  there  is  no 
sign  of  absolute  hopelessness.  A  great  spiritual  beauty 
in  them  is  the  sense  of  reliance  on  God;  but  when  we 
come  continually  upon  phrases  like  these:  "The 
chances  and  changes  of  this  mortal  life;  The  fear  of 
our  enemies;  Assaults  of  our  enemies;  That  thy  Church 


310         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

may  serve  thee  in  all  godly  quietness;  May  not  fear 
the  power  of  any  adversaries;  That  our  hearts  may 
surely  there  be  fixed  where  true  joys  are  to  be  found"; 
if  we  know  the  history,  we  almost  think  to  hear  Attila, 
and  Genseric,  and  the  Lombard  Agilulph  shouting  at 
Rome's  gates.  Pestilence  and  earthquake  added  to 
the  fear.  There  were  heresies  and  schisms  threatening 
the  Church's  inward  life.  There  was  the  radical  and 
widespread  error  which  struck  at  the  Scripture  truth 
of  man's  dependence  upon  the  mercy  and  grace  of 
God  for  power,  not  only  to  please  God,  but  even  to 
believe  in  Him.  There  was  the  error  in  relation  to  the 
Son  of  God  our  Saviour,  that  He  had  not  become  in 
truth  our  Brother,  which  took  away,  not  only  His 
power  of  human  sympathy  with  us,  but  that  which  is 
the  very  fons  et  origo  in  us  of  the  new  filial  obedience 
and  capacity  for  fellowship  with  Christ  and  the 
Father. 

Errors  like  these  were  "adversaries"  more  dangerous 
to  the  Church  and  to  mankind  than  Goths  or  Huns  or 
Lombards,  and  that  for  which  we  have  to  thank  God 
and  the  Spirit  of  God,  is  that  able,  valiant  and  saintly 
men  were  providentially  raised  up  not  merely  to  pray 
against  the  adversaries,  in  the  words  the  Church  now 
uses,  and  to  teach  others  to  pray,  but  to  go  forth  them- 
selves to  meet  them.  Leo  and  Gelasius  were  such 
men,  and  above  all  Gregory.  If  ever  there  have  been 
men  who  had  greatness  thrust  upon  them,  these  were 
such.  Greatness  was  thrust  upon  the  Latin  Church 
almost  from  the  beginning.  Long  before  Roman 
bishops  became  Popes, — and  neither  Leo,  Gelasius, 
nor  Gregory  were  Popes  in  the  historic  sense  of  that 
title, — the  Churches  of  Christ  around  them,  by  appeals 


GREGORY  AND  THE  LATIN  CHURCH          311 

to  them  to  settle  disputes  and  questions  of  authority 
and  render  assistance  of  every  kind,  made  them  Popes 
practically.  Temporal  power  came  to  them  by  the 
breaking  down  of  the  empire.  When  secular  Rome  had 
no  longer  the  military  strength  to  encounter  mighty 
conquerors  like  Attila,  nor  the  address  to  meet  them 
otherwise,  the  duty  fell  upon  those  who  sat  in  the  high 
places  of  spiritual  power.  Gibbon  calls  Gregory  I  "the 
father  of  his  country." 

Wonderfully  did  they  meet,  and  did  the  Church  as 
a  whole  meet,  the  manifold  emergency  of  the  hour; 
and  the  Latin  Church  as  the  most  widespread  and 
influential  of  all  the  Churches,  was  compelled  to  be 
ever  in  the  front  and  at  the  head.  It  fell  heir  naturally 
to  the  prestige  of  the  Roman  name.  Roman  Chris- 
tians, Roman  bishops  and  clergy,  would  naturally 
possess  the  Roman  virility  to  influence,  to  manage,  and 
to  govern.  And  Gregory,  the  greatest  saint  and 
bishop  of  his  age,  was  the  greatest  Roman  of  them  all 
as  a  leader  of  men.  As  Milman  says  ("Latin  Chris- 
tianity," Vol.  II,  page  44),  "he  united  in  himself  every 
qualification  and  endowment  which  could  command  the 
veneration  and  attachment  of  Rome  and  of  his  age. 
He  was  of  a  senatorial  family.  *  *  *  A  pope 
was  his  ancestor  in  the  fourth  degree.  To  his  noble 
descent  was  added  considerable  wealth."  It  would 
lead  us  much  too  far  if  we  tried  to  name  even  in  out- 
line the  ecclesiastical  and  other  tasks  which  devolved 
upon  him,  and  which  he  discharged  with  amazing 
energy,  skill  and  Christian  devotion.  "Not  from  his 
station  alone,"  writes  Milman,  "but  by  the  acknowl- 
edgement of  the  admiring  world,  he  was  intellectually 
as  well  as  spiritually  the  great  model  of  his  age." 


312         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

It  has  been  said  that  humility  is  the  foundation  of 
real  greatness.  Certainly  our  blessed  Saviour  saved 
us  all  by  His  "great  humility";  and  the  man  who 
perhaps  more  than  any  other  saved  Christianity, 
humanly  speaking,  from  being  wiped  off  the  Western 
continent  was  distinguished  by  humility.  In  speaking 
of  the  conversion  of  the  Lombards,  in  599  A.  D.,  when 
"in  their  very  hour  of  conquest,  he  [Gregory]  was 
subduing  the  conqueror,"  Milman  says:  "It  is  most 
singular  that  the  influence  of  Gregory  was  obtained 
by  means  not  only  mild  and  legitimate,  but  purely 
religious." 

"What  then,"  writes  Milman  in  another  connection, 
"was  this  Christianity  by  which  Gregory  ruled  the 
world?  Not  merely  the  speculative  and  dogmatic 
theology,  but  the  popular,  vital,  active  Christianity 
which  was  working  in  the  heart  of  man,  and  the  domi- 
nant motive  of  his  actions,  as  far  as  they  were  affected 
by  religion." 

Gregory  was  a  natural  lover  of  puns,  and  the  puns 
he  made  over  the  beautiful  English  captives  in  the 
slave  market  were  not  his  first  or  his  last.  He  has 
been  faulted  for  it,  but  would  that  all  punsters  had  a 
hundredth  part  of  the  soul-sympathy  and  consecration 
of  spirit  with  which  he  contemplated  those  Angli  from 
Deira,  and,  comparing  them  to  angels,  longed  and  for 
fourteen  years  cherished  the  purpose,  to  rescue  them 
himself  from  the  wrath  to  come.  He  had  actually 
started  for  that  distant  mission  when  called  back, 
against  his  will,  that  he  might  be  consecrated  bishop 
of  Rome ;  and  at  the  first  favorable  moment  he  inaugu- 
rated the  mission  of  Augustine  and  his  brother  monks, 
which  resulted  in  bringing  the  ancient  and  then  feeble 


GREGORY  AND  THE  LATIN  CHURCH          313 

Church  of  Britain  in  touch  again  with  the  Christianity 
of  Europe. 

It  can  never  be  said  that  any  true  member  of  the 
Body  of  Christ  is  dead,  or  beyond  restoration  to  health  ; 
and  the  Church  of  Britain,  originating  in  the  sub- 
apostolic  age,  was  still  in  parts  very  much  alive. 
Driven  to  the  North  and  West  by  the  heathen  invaders 
who  occupied  the  remainder  of  the  land,  there  were 
still  points  in  Kent  and  elsewhere  in  which  the  old 
Church  lived  on.  When  Augustine  came  to  Canter- 
bury, did  not  King  Ethelbert  allow  him  the  use  of  an 
ancient  Christian  Church,  the  little  Church  of  St. 
Martin  outside  the  city?  Is  it  not  "upon  the  ruins  of 
a  building  used  by  Christians  in  Britain  before  the 
heathen  Northmen  had  swept  over  the  country,"  that 
the  noble  Canterbury  Cathedral  now  stands?  When 
Augustine  arrived  on  the  scene,  but  ten  years  had 
elapsed  since  the  old  Church  had  given  up  the  contest 
and  retired.  These  and  other  equally  interesting 
historical  facts  of  the  kind  go  to  prove  the  antiquity 
of  our  branch  of  the  Church,  and  its  primitive  inde- 
pendence. 

On  the  other  hand,  those  old  ruins  under  the  new 
Christ  Church,  as  Augustine  called  his  cathedral,  were 
a  sign  of  the  generally  deplorable  condition  of  Chris- 
tianity in  the  land.  The  little  remainder  of  the  old 
British  Church  took  refuge  in  Wales,  as  the  early 
Christians  in  the  Holy  Land  had  fled  to  Pella.  Because 
they  were  weak,  and  therefore  afraid,  or  wanting  in 
missionary  love  were  cold-hearted  toward  their  con- 
querors, as  the  ancient  historians  Gildas  and  Bede 
assert,  "they  never  preached  the  faith  to  the  Saxons 
or  English  who  dwelt  amongst  them," 


314         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

In  this  lack  of  missionary  zeal  and  power  we  note  the 
contrast  between  them  and  Gregory,  and  the  early  Latin 
Church  upon  whose  character  and  policy  he  put  his 
mark  for  centuries  to  come.  The  Church  and  the  man 
are  thus  named  together,  as  hi  one  breath,  in  the  feel- 
ing that  alike  in  his  relation  to  our  mother  Church 
and  ourselves,  and  to  the  whole  Church  of  the  West  of 
which  he  was  the  greatest  bishop,  justice  has  not  been 
done  to  Gregory  as  a  Christian,  and  a  worthy  instru- 
ment in  the  Spirit's  hand.  Rightly  speaking,  to  talk 
of  him  is  to  talk  of  the  most  powerful  member  of 
Christ's  Church  Universal  in  its  best  days;  and  the 
converse  is  true;  to  speak  of  her  in  that  period  of 
relatively  genuine  catholicity,  is  to  speak  of  him. 
None  can  realize  this  so  well  as  we  who  Sunday  after 
Sunday  pray  the  prayers  he  prayed.  Whoever  com- 
posed the  article  on  Gregory  I  in  the  Encyclopedia 
Britannica  (Ninth  Edition),  it  would  seem  can  scarcely 
have  been  one  who  habitually  said  "Amen"  to  those 
Collects,  and  realized  the  sincerity  and  zeal  for  Christ 
which  were  in  him. 

How  sincere  his  love  for  Christ  and  for  man  was, 
land  how  far  the  missionary  motive  in  him  was  from 
being  either  a  wish  to  aggrandize  himself  or  the 
Roman  episcopate,  or  patriarchate,  as  represented  by 
him,  we  might  easily  forget,  thinking  of  the  other 
Gregories  who  followed  him,  especially  the  Seventh. 
Certain  historians  and  writers  on  the  Prayer  Book, 
Milman,  Hore,  Robertson,  Goulburn,  have  not  for- 
gotten. They  have  made  the  distinction,  and  pointed 
out  the  difference. 

Gregory  had  a  Roman  mind  and  soul,  an  imperial 
mind.  He  had  a  kingly  personality,  was  in  reality  as 


GREGORY  AND  THE  LATIN  CHURCH          315 

much  a  king  as  ever  Hildebrand  was;  yet  a  "king 
uncrowned,"  who  never  desired  to  be  crowned.  As 
Milman  shows,  "he  became  in  act  and  influence,  if 
not  in  avowed  authority,  a  temporal  sovereign." 
But  this  was  "forced  upon  him  by  the  purest  motives, 
if  not  by  absolute  necessity."  There  was  no  thought  of 
making  himself  more  than  the  Patriarch  of  the  West, 
and  he  addressed  the  four  other  Patriarchs  as  his  equals 
and  co-ordinate  rulers  of  the  Church.  Anything  else 
than  this,  he  said,  would  be  blasphemous,  "a  diabolical 
usurpation." 

"St.  Gregory,  the  Great,"  writes  Hore  (page  290),  "by  the 
gentleness  and  tenderness  of  his  character,  and  by  his  humility 
and  earnestness,  stands  out  as  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  Popes. 
But  he  was  no  Pope  in  the  modern  acceptation  of  the  term,  and 
the  religion  of  the  Rome  over  which  he  presided,  and  that  of 
mediaeval  and  modern  Rome,  are  two  almost  essentially  different 
religions."  He  abjured  a  universal  episcopate.  Having  indeed  a 
full  inherent  belief  in  the  dignity  and  power  of  his  position,  which 
for  two  hundred  years  had,  to  be  sure,  been  advancing  its  pre- 
tensions, and  no  doubt  willing  to  magnify  his  office,  he  neverthe- 
less acted  in  the  spirit  of  the  General  Councils,  and  denounced 
anyone  who  claimed  to  be  universal  Bishop  over  the  whole  Church 
as  'the  precursor  of  Antichrist.'" 

That  is  to  say,  Gregory  was  truly  Catholic  and 
Christian.  It  has  been  to  keep  this  clear  before  our 
minds  that  he  has  been  referred  to  throughout  as  a 
bishop,  and  not  a  pope,  and  that  the  Church  of  which 
he  was  Patriarch  and  which  he  helped  to  keep  pure 
with  the  catholicity  of  the  Apostles  themselves,  has 
been  mentioned  as  the  Latin  Church. 

Such  was  the  powerful  missionary  leader,  and  such 
the  Church,  that  having  saved  Western  Christianity  as 
a  whole  from  ruin,  by  the  barbarian  invasions,  and  saved 


316         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

the  barbarians  themselves  by  making  Christians  of 
them,  went  forth  to  accomplish  a  like  doubly  beauti- 
ful work  in  Britain.  It  required  faith,  Christ-like 
courage,  and  self-sacrifice  to  do  it.  Augustine  and  his 
monks,  although  disciplined  and  fortified  by  the  West- 
ern monastic  training, — a  very  different  affair  from 
the  Eastern  monastery  system, — would  never  have  had 
the  courage  or  the  wisdom  to  achieve  it  without  the 
constant  backing  and  careful  direction  of  Gregory's 
masterly  mind.  They  would  have  either  given  it  up, 
or  gone  forward  as  they  did,  only  to  fail. 

It  was  no  easy  matter  to  accomplish  the  necessary 
union  with  the  ancient  British  Church.  It  was  a  still 
more  formidable  undertaking  to  win  the  English  people 
to  Christ.  Difficult  is  it  for  us  their  descendants  to 
take  in  the  truth  about  them;  namely,  that  they 
were  harder  to  deal  with  than  the  Goths  and  the 
Huns,  Vandals,  and  Lombards,  who  had  thundered 
at  Rome's  gates  and  come  near  to  making  a  complete 
wreck  of  Western  civilization  and  destroying  European 
Christianity.  But  so  it  seems  to  have  been.  Saxons, 
Anglo-Saxons,  or  English,  ''they  were,"  says  Hore,  "of 
all  the  barbarous  hordes  which  dismembered  the 
Roman  Empire,  the  most  barbarous." 

In  a  former  chapter  the  Holy  Spirit  has  been  spoken 
of  as  the  Soul  of  the  Church,  and  the  Spirit  of  Mis- 
sions; we  have  seen  that  He  was  so  thought  of  in  the 
early  days  of  Christianity.  That  He  must  have  been 
so  regarded  by  the  great  Gregory,  and  every  missionary 
movement  organized  by  him  have  been  committed  to 
the  Spirit's  guidance,  seems  especially  likely  in  view 
of  the  place  given  to  Him  in  the  Eucharistic  Services 
of  those  times.  It  must  have  been  owing  to  Gregory's 


GREGORY  AND  THE  LATIN  CHURCH          317 

special  devotion  to  the  personal  Spirit  that  the  legend 
arose  in  later  times  that  the  Holy  Ghost  in  the  shape 
of  a  dove  had  often  been  seen  hovering  above  him  as 
he  wrote;  and  the  Roman  Church  has  constantly 
permitted  Gregory  to  be  represented  with  the  Holy 
Spirit,  as  a  dove,  floating  over  his  head. 

J.  Brierley,  author  of  "Aspects  of  the  Spiritual," 
speaking  in  his  pungent  way  of  Religious  Biog- 
raphy, says: 

"The  word  'saint'  is  the  greatest  and  richest  word  in  our 
vocabulary.  In  the  darkest  ages  the  saints  shine  out,  exhibiting 
among  surrounding  barbarisms  the  overwhelming  power  of  sheer 
goodness.  Always  in  those  tunes  the  warrior,  the  savage,  bows 
before  the  saint."  And  he  adds:  "Our  good  Protestants  need 
to  enlarge  their  view  here,  and  to  rid  themselves  of  the  idea  that 
the  Christian  hie  went  underground  at  the  close  of  the  Apostolic 
age,  only  to  re-emerge  at  the  Reformation.  It  has,  they  ought  to 
remember,  been  running  all  the  time  in  a  strong  and  glorious 
current."  Giving  a  list  of  names,  Ignatius,  Polycarp,  Justin 
Martyr,  Gregory  of  Naziansen,  St.  Francis,  and  others,  he  asks: 
"Why  do  not  our  pastors  in  then*  pulpit  teaching  deal  more  fully 
with  these  records?  There  is  no  richer  vein.  Are  not  these  lives 
part  of  the  Divine  revelation?" 

I-  say  "Amen"  to  this,  and  if  not  mistaken  in  my 
view  of  Gregory  I  would  "enlarge"  the  list  with  his 
name,  as  a  nobler  one  than  that  of  Gregory  Naziansen 
and  meaning  more  to  English-speaking  Christians  of 
every  name.  What  has  been  said,  if  true,  is  more 
emphatically  true  when  our  view  of  Christianity  is 
widened  with  the  larger  meaning  which  our  Lord  seems 
sometimes  to  have  given  to  the  phrase,  "  Kingdom  of 
Heaven."  As  Dr.  Archibald  Robertson  wrote: 

"Our  Saviour's  teaching  on  the  subject  is  closely  connected 
with  convictions  and  hopes  which  He  so  used  as  to  give  a  new 


318         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

meaning  to  life,  and  open  a  new  direction  to  human  aspiration 
and  effort.  The  Kingdom  of  God  in  His  hands  is  a  many-sided 
conception." 


Influenced  by  this  wider  conception,  I  would  not 
leave  the  theme,  Gregory  and  the  Latin  Church  of  his 
day  in  its  relation  to  Western  Christianity,  without 
inviting  attention  to  Dean  Church's  intensely  interest- 
ing lectures  on  Some  Influences  of  Christianity  upon 
National  Character,  in  the  book  entitled  "Gifts  of 
Civilization."  After  speaking  of  the  decay  and  fall 
of  the  old  Roman  civilization,  and  the  growth  out  of 
its  ruins  of  a  new  one  infinitely  more  vigorous,  the  new 
force,  or  element,  or  aspect  of  the  world,  or  assemblage 
of  ideas,  which  proved  able  to  make  of  society  what 
Roman  loftiness  of  heart,  Roman  sagacity,  Roman 
patience,  Roman  strength  was  not  able  to  make  of 
it,  and  asking  what  that  force  was,  he  answers,  as 
we  expect  him  to  do: 

"It  is  as  clear  and  certain  a  fact  of  history  that  the  coming 
in  of  Christianity  was  accompanied  by  new  moral  elements  in 
society,  inextinguishable,  widely  operative,  never  destroyed, 
though  apparently  at  times  crushed  and  paralyzed,  as  it  is  certain 
that  Christian  nations  have  made  on  the  whole  more  progress 
in  the  wise  ordering  of  human  life  than  was  made  in  the  most 
advanced  civilization  of  the  times  before  Christianity." 

This  truth  in  its  many  aspects, — aspects  which  we  must  think 
of  as  latent  in  St.  Paul's  prophetic  phrase, "the  length  and  breadth 
and  depth  and  height," — Dean  Church  sets  before  us  in  a  wealth 
of  argument  and  illustration,  and  a  beauty  of  expression,  which 
make  me  long  to  reproduce  it  entire  on  these  pages.  Rome  had 
put  the  world  under  obligation  by  its  gift  of  Jurisprudence,  and 
its  strong  conceptions  of  citizenship  and  patriotism.  Christi- 
anity appropriates  these,  enlarges  their  scope,  and  invests  them 
with  holier  eanctions.  Taking  up  the  subject  of  its  influence  on 


GREGORY  AND  THE  LATIN  CHURCH          319 

national  character,  and  first  upon  Greek  character,  he  then  shows 
the  debt  of  the  Latin  races  to  Christianity. 

Remarking  first,  that,  although  there  has  been  since  the  fall  of 
the  Empire  "so  large  an  infusion  of  Teutonic  blood  into  the  popu- 
lations which  inherited  what  was  then  called  Gaul,  and  the  name 
by  which  they  are  now  known  is  a  Teutonic  one,yet  Latin  influence 
has  proved  the  prevailing  and  the  dominant  one."  He  shows 
that  there  was  in  the  Italians  and  French  "a  new  development 
and  life  of  the  affections  and  emotional  part  of  our  nature," 
evidenced  in  their  character,  and  literature,  and  art.  "The  very 
staple  of  then*  character  was  altered."  Passing  by  the  unfolding 
of  his  argument  in  this  delightful  and  instructive  lecture,  we 
come  to  what  concerns  us  more  nearly,  The  Influence  of  Christi- 
anity upon  the  Teutonic  Races,  including  the  English. 

"  No  one  then  dreamed  that  these  were  to  be  the  destroyers  and 
supplanters  of  the  ancient  civilization,  still  less  that  they  were 
the  fathers  of  a  nobler  and  grander  world  than  any  that  history 
had  yet  known;  that  it  was  a  race  which  was  to  assert  its  chief 
and  lordly  place  in  Europe,  to  occupy  half  of  a  new-found  world, 
to  inherit  India,  to  fill  the  islands  of  unknown  seas;  to  be  the 
craftsmen,  the  traders,  the  colonists,  the  explorers  of  the  world." 
Conquerors,  heroes,  statesmen,  men  of  blood  and  iron, — nay 
great  rulers  and  mighty  kings  would  come  from  it.  He  talks 
of  Shakspere  and  Bacon,  of  Leibnitz  and  Goethe,  of  English 
courts  of  justice,  of  English  and  German  workshops  of  thought 
and  art,  English  and  German  homes,  English  and  German 
religious  feeling  and  earnestness. 

"While  there  was  in  this  race  of  the  North  a  foundation  for 
this  splendid  new  development  in  humanity,  the  Christian 
Church, — more  particularly,  the  Latin  Church,  which  had  in  a 
wonderful,  almost  miraculous  way  succeeded  in  place  and  power 
to  the  Latin  Empire, — under  God  wrought  the  mighty  change. 
A  chief  subject  for  wonder  is  that  Christianity  came  not  to  them, 
as  it  had  come  to  the  people  of  the  South,  in  the  hour  of  their 
weakness  and  anxiety;  it  came  in  the  hour  of  triumph.  It  sub- 
dued and  brought  to  the  foot  of  the  Cross  the  very  conquerors  of 
the  Latin  Empire  in  the  height  of  their  success.  It  awakened 
their  conscience  and  humbled  their  pride,  and  taught  them  the 
secrets  of  spiritual  truth,  and  fear  of  future  retribution,  inspired 
a  deeper,  truer  manliness,  and  a  sincerer  love  of  truth  and 


320         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

reverence  for  all  that  was  most  noble  and  pure  just  when  they  had 
their  feet  on  the  neck  of  prostrate  Europe." 

The  Dean  shows  that  it  was  the  Latin  clergy  who  were  the 
Spirit's  chief  instrument  hi  achieving  this  astonishing  result. 
He  quotes  a  passage  from  Guizot's  Lectures,  which  brings  out 
not  the  fact  merely,  but  a  chief  reason  for  it;  namely  the  unity 
of  the  Church  in  that  period.  "  From  the  fourth  to  the  thirteenth 
century,"  says  Guizot,  "it  is  the  Church  which  always  marches 
in  the  front  rank  of  civilization.  I  must  call  your  attention  to 
a  fact  which  stands  at  the  head  of  all  others,  and  characterizes 
the  Christian  Church  in  general — a  fact  which,  so  to  speak,  has 
decided  its  destiny.  This  fact  is  the  unity  of  the  Church. 
*  *  *  Wonderful  phenomenon!  *  *  *  from  the  bosom 
of  the  most  frightful  disorder  the  world  has  ever  seen  has  arisen 
the  largest,  purest  idea,  perhaps,  which  ever  drew  men  together — 
the  idea  of  a  spiritual  society." 

It  was  the  Church  of  Gregory,  and  of  the  Gregorian 
age,  that  accomplished,  under  the  Spirit  of  Unity,  the 
spiritual  phenomenon  which  Guizot  described  so 
eloquently.  Not  our  morals,  our  ideas,  our  home 
and  national  life,  our  literature  and  our  art  merely, 
but  our  language  bear  witness  to  the  profound  and  wide- 
reaching  influence  of  the  Latin  Church.  It  is  remark- 
ably so  in  regard  to  our  religious  words,  these  every- 
day words,  on  our  tongues  as  much  as  in  our  Prayer 
Books  and  religious  literature.  These  are  largely  of 
Latin  derivation.  They  have  come  to  us  with  the 
Church  and  the  Prayer  Book,  rather  than  through  the 
English  Bible,  which  is  principally  Anglo-Saxon. 

We  speak  of  the  Sacrament,  and  of  the  Communion, 
of  the  saints;  stand  and  say,  "I  believe  in  the  Holy 
Catholic  Church";  utter  a  sentence  like  this:  "I  am 
convinced  that  there  must  have  been  deep  piety  in 
Gregory,  and  Leo,  and  Gelasius;  much  of  personal 
religion  in  the  Mediaeval  Church;  there  is  perhaps 


GREGORY  AND  THE  LATIN  CHURCH          321 

as  much,  if  not  more,  of  it  in  the  Roman  Church  of 
to-day,  far  as  we  judge  it  to  have  fallen  from  original 
catholicity." 

Do  we  know,  or  look  into  our  dictionaries  to  ascer- 
tain, that  while  holy  and  desp  and  fallen  and  believe 
are  Anglo-Saxon  words  and  Catholic  and  Church  are 
Greek,  not  only  ascertain,  and  dictionaries,  and  original, 
but  piety,  personal,  religion,  and  saints,  convinced, 
communion,  and  sacrament,  are  derived  from  the 
Latin.  Like  the  Collects,  the  Gregorian  Chants, 
the  Creeds,  and  our  heritage  of  pure  catholic  teaching, 
these  familiar  words  have  been  directly  or  indirectly 
brought  to  us  by  the  Church  of  those  early  days. 
They  talk  to  us,  if  we  will  let  them,  of  those  times, 
and  of  our  manifold  indebtedness. 

They  enrich  our  religious  conceptions  as  truly  as  they 
dignify  and  beautify  our  speech  and  literature.  The 
word  "Sacrament,"  meaning  originally  the  oath  of 
fidelity  taken  by  each  Roman  soldier  at  his  enlistment, 
stands  now  for  the  Christian's  baptismal  pledge  of 
loving  obedience  to  his  Redeemer  and  Lord,  and  for 
the  Eucharist  in  which  he  renews  and  confirms  that 
pledge. 

What  now  of  the  decline  and  fall  of  the  Latin  Church 
from  its  early  spiritual  ideals,  and  the  main  causes  of 
it?  One  of  our  Lord's  most  significant  words  was, 
"My  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world,  else  would  my 
servants  fight."  How  early  in  its  life  did  the  most 
important  Church  of  His  Spirit's  planting  forget  to 
live  by  that  word!  The  history  of  the  Papacy  is  one 
long  story  of  struggle  for  worldly  eminence  and  power, 
by  means  of  worldly  and  even  anti-Christian  expedients. 

21 


322         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

Already  in  Gregory's  day  the  thought  and  the  desire  of 
a  world-wide  empire  for  Rome  was  in  the  air,  and  in 
the  heart  of  Roman  bishops.  It  was  chiefly  in  his 
superiority  to  this  thought  and  motive  that  Gregory 
towered  above  his  age,  and  the  victory  of  his  appar- 
ently sincere  and  unconscious  humility  was  the  greater, 
in  that  he  was  by  birth  and  every  way  a  typical  Roman. 

"The  great  secret  of  Rome's  success,"  writes  Hore, 
(page  337),  "was  its  marvellous  organizing  power," 
and  in  this  quality  Gregory  was  exceeded  by  none. 
Hore  adds,  "there  can  be  little  doubt  that  in  such 
unsettled  and  troublous  times  a  common  centre  of 
unity,  especially  when  the  fountain-head  was  pure, 
was  of  the  first  importance  to  the  spread  of  Christi- 
anity." This  is  true,  and  in  that  unity  we  must 
with  gratitude  recognize  the  mind  and  will  of  the 
Spirit.  But  the  moment  that  concentration  of  force 
and  influence  began  to  be  acquired  and  made  secure 
through  worldly  means,  the  fountain-head  ceased  to  be 
pure.  Not  only  did  the  supremacy  of  Rome,  as  the 
same  writer  says,  "sap  the  independence  of  National 
Churches,"  it  tended  to  sap  the  spiritual  vitality  of 
the  Latin  Church  itself.  In  that  same  wonderful 
power  of  organization,  a  distinctly  Latin  gift,  there 
lay  an  immense  temptation,  and  when  "the  conception 
of  the  Kingdom  of  God  as  an  omnipotent  Church,  in 
the  form  indispensable  to  its  practical  effect,  of  papal 
absolutism,  was  in  large  measure  realized  in  the  Middle 
Ages,"  the  temptation  had  been  completely  yielded  to. 

The  Church  had  received  then  a  next  to  vital  injury. 
Gregory  VII,  a  very  different  Gregory  from  the  Gregory 
of  four  and  a  half  centuries  earlier,  "confronted  by 
force  and  statecraft,  played  his  game  with  vigor  and 


GREGORY  AND  THE  LATIN  CHURCH          323 

skill,  and  there  was  a  gain  in  immediate  power;  but 
the  spiritual  force  of  the  Church  was  immeasurably 
lowered."  It  is  Bishop  Archibald  Robertson  who 
speaks  ("Regnum  Dei,"  page  257).  He  has  shown 
(page  101)  that  our  Lord  began  a  reign  on  earth  in 
which  He  was  represented  by  a  visible  society  pre- 
sided over  by  an  Invisible  Spirit.  What  His  own  Eye 
and  Hand  and  Word  had  been  to  His  people  in  the  days 
of  His  flesh,  His  Pentecostal  Spirit  would  be.  This 
Spirit  Tertullian  referred  to  as  the  unseen  Vicar  of 
Christ.  The  only  "positive"  law  bequeathed  to  this 
divine  Society  was  the  rite  of  admission  to  it,  holy 
Baptism.  The  invisible  guidance,  we  learn  from  the 
New  Testament  history,  "was  realized  in  the  collective 
action  of  the  Society,  indwelt  by  the  Holy  Ghost." 

Needless  is  it  to  point  out  how  the  intention  of 
Christ  was,  so  to  say,  thwarted,  and  the  spiritual 
conception  of  His  Church  obscured,  if  not  destroyed, 
when  Roman  bishops, — Innocent  II  was  the  first, — 
took  to  themselves  the  office  and  the  very  name  of  the 
Vicar  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  appropriation  to  themselves 
of  political,  as  a  means  of  spiritual,  power,  for  the  good 
of  the  Church  and  the  salvation  of  souls,  was  in  fact 
spiritually  fatal.  It  struck  at  the  life  of  the  Church, 
and  of  men's  souls.  Ever  since  that,  the  papal  author- 
ity and  policy,  as  sustained  and  forwarded  by  the 
Jesuits  particularly,  in  a  system  which  exalts  sub- 
mission to  such  an  external  authority  to  the  supreme, 
all  important  place  in  ethics,  has  struck  at  the  root 
of  the  gospel  conception  of  filial,  free  obedience.  We 
find  a  new  legalism,  as  bad  as  the  old  pharisaic  legalism, 
lifted  to  the  very  highest  position  spiritually  by  a 
Church  which  claims  the  homage  of  all  mankind. 


324         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

In  place  of  a  unity  created  and  fostered  by  the 
Holy  Spirit  of  Unity,  we  behold  a  false  external  unity 
compelled  by  fear;  and  when  humanity,  enlightened 
by  the  Spirit,  but  not  always  therefore  perfectly 
guided  by  Him,  will  no  longer  submit,  but  attempts  to 
throw  off  such  an  unreal,  unspiritual  unity,  in  the 
Reformation,  we  have,  as  might  be  expected,  what 
Bishop  Robertson  terms  "an  irreconcilable  diversity 
in  a  multitude  of  protesting  sects."  • 

Enough,  however, — possibly  more  than  enough, — 
on  this  darker  side.  Ought  we  not  to  look  at  Christian 
Churches,  as  well  as  individual  Christians,  as  it  were, 
through  the  eyes  of  God, — to  use  St.  Paul's  phrase, 
"in  the  very  heart  of  Christ "?  The  Latin  Church  is  still 
Christian,  holding,  with  additions  which  we  deplore,  the 
Faith  of  the  Ages.  It  is  the  same  Latin  Church  which 
won  Europe  to  Christ,  converted  our  fierce  English  fore- 
fathers, and  by  the  hands  of  Gregory  and  Augustine  has 
passed  on  to  us  large  portions  of  our  catholic  heritage. 

In  the  time  between  our  Gregory  and  Gregory  VII, 
which  we  are  accustomed  to  speak  of  as  the  dark  ages, 
there  was  much  of  light,  from  the  Spirit  of  Light. 
There  were  beautiful  examples  of  piety,  noble  hymns 
written,  and  works  of  Christian  charity  done,  in  the 
power  of  the  Spirit. 

Precisely  as  catholic-minded  Protestants  long  since 
learned  to  distinguish  between  the  Rome  of  these  days 
and  the  Rome  of  fourteen  centuries  ago,  we  ought 
to  distinguish  between  Ultramontanism  and  the  faith 
and  practice  of  the  Latin  Church  as  a  whole  to-day. 
Those  were  striking  words  of  Bishop  Potter  in  1898: 

"The  enormous  audacity  which  in  our  generation  has  added 
new  dogmas  to  the  historic  creeds  of  Christendom,  and  the  very 


GREGORY  AND  THE  LATIN  CHURCH          325 

novel  claims  of  authority  under  which  this  has  been  done,  have 
awakened  a  far  wider  challenge  of  Ultramontanism,  even  among 
its  own  followers,  than  its  leaders  have  been  willing  to  recog- 
nize. These  cite  it  before  the  bar  of  history,  and  to  that  bar  it 
must  go." 

In  the  Roman  Church  as  we  know  her  in  our  own 
land  to-day  there}  are, — it  goes  without  saying, — many 
signs  of  spiritual  consecration.  The  funeral  oration 
of  the  Archbishop  of  St.  Louis  upon  Archbishop  Ryan 
of  Philadelphia  must  have  been  in  this  aspect  a  revela- 
tion, and  a  cause  of  thanksgiving,  to  many  non-Roman 
Christians. 

"Prayer  ardent  opens  heaven,"  wrote  Young. 
Prayer,  we  are  assured, 

"Moves  the  arm  that  moves  the  world," 

but  to  feel  already  a  little  stirring,  and  see  heaven's 
gates  ajar  in  answer  to  our  prayers,  encourages  us  to 
pray  more. 

There  are  two  "subjects"  of  petition  which  there 
is  reason  to  believe  that  many,  even  among  those  who 
pray  fervently,  pass  by  unheeded,  namely,  the  conver- 
sion of  the  Jews  and  the  conversion  of  the  Roman 
Church  to  its  primitive  catholicity. 

These  two  are  naturally  associated  in  the  mind 
of  one  who  recalls  Milman's  words  regarding  Gregory's 
just  and  humane  treatment  of  the  Jews,  and  his  desire 
to  win  them  to  the  true  Messiah.  But  there  is  another 
reason  for  thus  associating  them.  The  Jews  were  as 
the  "chosen  people"  a  special  instrument  of  the  Spirit 
for  the  salvation  of  the  world.  The  Church  Universal, 
it  has  been  truly  said,  is  really  identical  with, — a  con- 
tinuation of, — the  Church  of  the  Old  Testament.  Not 


326         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

only  was  the  Redeemer  of  mankind  born  of  a  Jewish 
mother,  in  Bethlehem  of  Judea:  the  first  preachers 
of  His  Gospel,  and  founders,  with  Him,  of  His  New 
Testament  Church  were  children  of  Abraham.  The 
Jews  were  divinely  elected  to  proclaim  His  saving 
health  to  all  nations;  and  had  they  as  a  people  obeyed 
the  calling,  we  must  think  the  world  would  have  been 
won  for  Messiah  the  Prince  long  ago. 

The  Latin  Church  was  in  a  somewhat  like  manner 
divinely  fitted  and  chosen, — maybe  the  more  so  because 
the  Jewish  people,  so  to  speak,  defaulted, — to  be, 
under  the  Holy  Spirit's  direction,  the  leading  and  most 
efficient  member  of  Christ's  Body.  Heir  to  ancient 
Rome's  position,  character,  and  world-wide  influence, 
to  her  came  the  splendid  opportunity,  and  the  duty. 
In  a  way,  and  during  a  certain  period,  she  embraced 
the  opportunity  and  performed  the  duty  bravely  and 
well.  As  we  have  seen,  she  practically  saved  the 
Christianity  of  the  West,  in  the  sixth,  seventh  and 
eighth  Christian  centuries,  and  in  large  measure 
transmitted  it  to  our  heathen  forefathers.  Had  she 
not  in  time  also  defaulted,  sought  grace  to  "fling 
away  ambition"  by  which  "sin  fell  the  angels,"  and 
serve  her  Lord  and  His  Vicar,  the  divine  Spirit,  with  half 
the  zeal  with  which  she  served  the  motive  of  temporal 
power  and  authority,  again  we  can  say  that  to-day 
His  Name  would  be  honoured  among  men,  and  the 
nations  be  rejoicing  in  His  blessed  reign  of  righteous- 
ness and  peace,  as  is  not  yet  the  case. 

But  here  we  can  but  turn  to  the  other  side,  suggested 
by  those  three  wonderful  chapters,  the  ninth,  tenth, 
and  eleventh,  of  Romans.  We  want  to,  and  we  may, 
apply  what  the  Apostle  there  says  of  God's  gracious 


GREGORY  AND  THE  LATIN  CHURCH          327 

intentions  in  relation  to  Israel,  alike  to  the  Jews  and 
to  our  sister  Church  of  Rome  at  the  present  time. 
The  Apostle's  heaviness  and  sorrow  of  heart  on  Israel's 
account,  and  his  heart's  desire  and  prayer  to  God  for 
their  salvation,  together  with  his  confidence  that  God 
had  not  cast  away  His  ancient  people,  we  can  and 
ought  to  make  our  feeling  and  prayer  as  regards  the 
Jews  and  our  brethren  of  Rome.  Of  both  we  have 
to  believe  that  they  are  "beloved  for  the  fathers'  sakes," 
— for  the  "election," — since  both  Churches  have  been 
chosen  instruments  in  the  Hand  of  Providence.  We 
have  reason  to  believe  that  the  conversion  alike  of  the 
one  and  the  other  will  mean  "life  from  the  dead"  to 
multitudes  in  all  parts  of  the  world  where  Jews  or 
Romanists  are  found  in  large  numbers. 

The  words  of  Dr.  Max  Green,  a  Jewish  physician  of 
Philadelphia,  regarding  his  own  people,  are  as  true  as 
they  are  eloquent: 

"Our  mission  and  destiny  are  yet  before  us.  We  would  long 
since  have  disappeared,  if  it  had  all  belonged  to  the  past.  The 
world,  the  great  Christian  world,  needs  us.  It  needs  our  zeal 
for  righteousness,  our  enthusiasm  for  the  ideal.  It  needs  us  to 
help  fill  the  earth  with  the  knowledge  of  our  own  Scriptures, 
with  which  no  nation  is  yet  as  familiar  as  we  are.  The  world 
needs  us,  and  our  Messiah  is  waiting  for  us,  to  take  our  rightful 
place  in  His  Kingdom.  *  *  *  From  being  a  curse  among 
the  nations  we  shall  become  a  blessing — a  blessing  to  ourselves 
and  a  blessing  to  the  world.  The  time  will  be  hastened  when 
the  earth  shall  become  filled  with  the  knowledge  of  God  as  the 
waters  cover  the  sea.  The  glorious  Messianic  age  will  be  ushered 
in  and  God's  kingdom  on  earth,  the  great  human  Brotherhood, 
under  the  Fatherhood  and  Kingship  of  God  and  His  Anointed, 
will  become  an  established  fact." 

Our  chief  concern  here  is  with  the  Latin  Church. 
An  incalculable  force  resides  in  it  to-day  for  the  turn- 


328         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

ing  of  mankind  to  Christ.  Are  not  the  old  Roman 
organizing  faculty,  and  sense  of  unity,  order,  and 
universality,  with  a  certain  Roman-soldierly  courage 
and  spirit  of  obedience,  plainly  in  her  still?  "When 
thou  art  converted,"  said  the  Lord  to  Simon  Peter, 
"strengthen  the  brethren";  and  when  Anglicans 
kneel  to  pray  for  the  Church  to  which,  as  a  missionary 
power,  English-speaking  people,  as  we  have  been  seeing, 
owe  so  large  a  debt,  let  them  remember  that  much  of 
that  missionary  zeal  and  efficiency  are  in  her  still,  that 
the  Lord  hath  need  of  them,  and  that  without  them, 
transformed  by  the  loving  Spirit  into  a  pure  spiritual 
and  evangelical  power,  the  glorious  Messianic  age, 
and  the  great  human  Brotherhood  under  the  Father 
and  His  Anointed, — to  borrow  Dr.  Green's  words, — 
will  not  become  established  facts  for  many  a  century. 
The  rich  catholic  truth  of  the  divine  Predestination 
of  mankind  as  one  great  family  in  Christ,  acquires  a  still 
larger  significance  when  seen  in  connection  with  two 
other  Scripture  verities,  the  force  of  which  Christians 
are  now  learning  to  appreciate  more  fully;  that  is,  first 
that  God  in  creating  us  in  His  own  likeness,  with  free 
wills,  necessarily  limited  to  a  certain  degree  the  free 
carrying  out  of  His  own  will.  Already  hi  creation  the 
Godhead,  Father,  Son  and  Spirit,  graciously  humbled 
Itself  so  to  do  for  our  richer  benefit  in  the  end. 
God  has  had  ever  to  wait  for  man  to  respond  to  the 
motions  and  calls  of  the  Spirit.  He  may  not  and 
will  not  force  us.  Christ  who  said,  "I  am  the  light 
of  the  world,"  said  also,  "Ye  are  the  light  of  the 
world,"  and  He  must  wait  for  us  to  be  willing  to  send 
out  our  light.  He  has  said,  "Ask  and  ye  shall 
receive,"  and  will  therefore  wait  until  we  do  ask. 


GREGORY  AND  THE  LATIN  CHURCH          329 

It  follows,  secondly, — and  the  correct  interpretation 
of  St.  Peter's  words  (2d  Pet.  3  :  12),  in  respect  to  the 
coming  of  God's  Day  appears  to  favour  it, — that  by 
our  prayers,  if  not  by  our  efforts,  we  can  hasten,  and 
therefore  can,  per  contra,  delay  the  ripening  and  per- 
fecting of  His  great  plan  for  our  race.  While  in  the 
supreme  sense  it  rests  with  Him,  in  a  secondary  and 
subordinate  sense  much  depends  upon  us.  It  gives 
practical  importance  to  Christian  endeavour,  and  to 
supplication  for  blessings  on  individuals,  on  Christ's 
Body  the  Church,  and  on  Missions.  Tennyson's 
often  quoted  words, 

"For  so  the  whole  round  earth  is  every  way 
Bound  by  gold  chains  about  the  feet  of  God" 

acquire  broadest  significance.  We  would  underline 
"every  way";  feel  that  we  can  help  God  fulfil  His 
glorious  purpose  every  way  by  praying  or  working, 
and  delay  Him  in  countless  ways  by  our  indifference 
and  idleness. 

On  the  other  hand, — and  whenever  we  stand  on  the 
seashore  and  watch  the  waves  and  the  rising  of  the 
tide,  and  are  reminded  of  God's  omnipotence,  and 
constancy  to  His  great  purposes  of  love, — we  can 
appreciate  the  poetry  and  the  comfort  in  the  lines  of 
Priscilla  Leonard  (in  the  Outlook} : 

"O  mighty  sea!  thy  message 

In  clanging  spray  is  cast; 
Within  God's  plan  of  progress 

It  matters  not  at  last 
How  wide  the  shores  of  evil, 

How  strong  the  reefs  of  sin — 
The  wave  may  be  defeated, 

But  the  tide  is  sure  to  win!" 


330         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

CONCLUSION 

Recurring  once  more  to  Bishop  Doane's  words: 
"The  subject  certainly  is  one  of  large  and  deep  impor- 
tance, and  it  concerns  every  one  of  us  in  the  very 
most  essential  and  fundamental  parts  and  phases  of 
our  Christian  life;"  I  venture  to  "speak  boldly,  as 
(I  believe)  I  ought  to  speak."  The  hour  has  come, 
came  indeed  long  since,  when  the  Spirit-Truth  should 
be  on  every  Christian's  tongue,  and  in  his  heart; 
yet  in  how  many  able  and  valuable  addresses  and 
treatises  on  the  religious  problems  of  the  time  is 
mention  barely  made  of  Him!  Invoked  in  every 
baptism,  and  on  every  eucharist  of  the  American 
Church,  He  ought  to  be  frequently  invoked  in  ser- 
mons and  instructions,  and  called  upon  in  secret 
by  those  who  listen.  True  it  is  that  we  ought  to 
use  the  various  earthly  means  and  instruments;  to 
work,  to  influence,  to  teach  as  did  our  Lord  Himself; 
to  write  as  forcibly  as  it  may  lie  in  us  to  write;  but 
prayer  for  the  Spirit's  co-operation  was  not  by  Christ 
dispensed  with  or  unrecognized:  He  taught  in  the 
Spirit,  cast  out  devils,  as  He  said,  "by  the  Finger  of 
God,"  which  meant,  by  the  Spirit.  We  have  but  to 
act  and  to  speak  as  He  did,  the  exception  being 
this  notable  one,  that  in  the  Pentecostal  era  the 
Ascended  Lord  and  His  Bride  the  Church  are  in  the 
Spirit  to  do  greater  works  than  He  did  while  in  the 
flesh. 

Herein  the  wonder  of  Pentecojt  chiefly  consisted, 
and  consists;  and  our  long  Whitsuntide  should  bring 
the  truth  close  home  to  the  Church's  faith.  We  need 
to  ask  ourselves  whether,  and  where,  Christians  were 
to  draw  a  line  and  say,  No  more  "greater  miracles" 


CONCLUSION  331 

henceforth;  the  Pentecostal  period  is  over.  By 
Christ's  and  the  Bride's  new  privilege  and  right  the 
Finger  of  God  became  the  Hand  of  God;  are  we  using 
this  privilege  of  power  for  all  it  is  worth  to-day? 
When  was  faith  to  cease  being  able  to  "move  moun- 
tains"? and  may  not  the  difficulties  which  the 
majority  of  believers  now  designate  insuperable, 
the  so-called  impossible  achievements,  or  iridescent 
dreams, — of  which  Church  Unity  is  one, — be  the 
very  mountains  which  faith  in  the  Holy  Ghost's 
guidance  and  power  can  succeed  hi  moving?  We 
call  ourselves  believers:  are  we  believers, — are  we 
Trinitarians, — until  we  believe  implicitly  hi  an  ever- 
present  and  all-powerful  Spirit? 

No  object  lies  nearer  to  His  heart  than  Unity  among 
Christians,  and  especially  within  the  Church  Catholic 
itself.  In  this  volume  so-called  burning  questions 
have  generally  been  avoided,  and  little  or  nothing  is 
said  about  the  best  method  of  putting  their  fire  out, 
to  save  the  Lord's  "spiritual  house"  from  harm 
and  loss.  But  the  great  end  itself  has  not  been  out 
of  mind;  and  the  hope  has  been  entertained,  that 
one  good  result  of  our  study  may  be  a  clearer  vision 
of  the  Comforter's  power  to  solve  such  questions. 
Lowell  in  Study  Windows  speaks  of  "the  universal  sol- 
vent sought  by  the  alchemists."  The  view  from  our 
window  makes  it  clear  that  Jjhe^Holy  Ghost  is  this 
Universal  Solvent  in  the  Church.  It  is  one  of  His 
most  gracious  operations.  He  unifies  men  and  truths, 
through  love  and  charity,  and  by  opening  men's  eyes 
to  see  more  than  one  side  of  a  truth;  and  the  two 
operations  are  seen  united  hi  the  verse  of  the  Veni 
Creator; 


332        THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED)  ' 

"Thy  blessed  unction  from  above 
Is  comfort,  life,  and  fire  of  love. 
Enable  with  perpetual  light 
The  dulness  of  our  blinded  sight!" 

Is  it  not  this  way  in  respect  to  parties  within  the 
Church,  or  to  the  Church  and  Communions  dissenting 
from  her?  A  passage  from  the  Bampton  Lectures  of 
1871  (page  425)  may  illustrate  the  point: 

"There  is  no  disinclination,  on  our  part,"  writes  Curteis,  "to 
adopt  from  Dissenters  (with  the  fullest  acknowledgments) 
whatever  they  have  of  good  and  sound  and  useful.  Nor  has  any 
one  of  the  more  important  denominations  the  slightest  necessity, 
on  returning  to  the  Church,  to  give  up  one  single  truth  that  God 
has  taught  them.  *  *  *  On  the  contrary,  every  such 
denomination  has, — as  I  have  attempted  to  show  hi  these  Lec- 
tures,— a  banner  and  a  camping  ground  of  its  own,  within  the 
broad  area  of  the  Church  of  England." 

To  old  men  who  dream  dreams,  and  young  men  who 
seeing  visions  possess  the  courage  and  vigor  to  aim  at 
realizing  them,  it  becomes  every  year  more  evident 
that  the  English-speaking  race  has  a  singular  mission 
to  the  world, — to  give  large  portions  of  it  a  Christian 
civilization,  of  which  the  inward  life  is  the  Spirit  of 
the  risen  and  ascended  Lord.  Now  it  is  the  Spirit 
Himself  who  can  turn  the  vision  into  a  reality  He 
alone  can  make  "Christ  for  the  world  we  sing"  and 
"The  world  to  Christ  we  bring"  one  living  truth  and 
fact. 

If  the  argument  in  Chapter  IV  is  sound,  then  the 
entire  latter  half  of  the  Year  of  Christ  is  a  time  in  which, 
for  one  thing,  to  present  fervently  and  persistently 
this  same  world-obligation  of  our  English  race,  and  of 
our  Church  in  particular,  to  the  heart  and  conscience 


CONCLUSION  333 

of  her  people.  And  may  we  not  believe  that  one 
important  effect  of  doing  this  would  be  to  bring  them 
around  again  to  the  solemn  Advent  time  with  a  clearer 
conception  of  its  significance  as  an  end  as  truly  as  a 
beginning?  For  the  end  to  be  had  always  in  view  by 
each  Christian,  and  by  the  Church  as  a  Body,  is  the 
great  spiritual  Harvest  of  God.  "Stir  up,  O  Lord, 
the  wills  of  thy  faithful  people"  would  thus  acquire 
sevenfold  the  richness  of  meaning  that  it  now  has. 
New  "Stir  up"  petitions  would  be  joined  with  it  at 
the  next  Revision.  Dear  as  the  familiar  Collect  for 
the  Second  Sunday  in  Advent  is, — much  as  we  need 
"patience  and  comfort  from  God's  holy  word"  for 
ourselves,  and  strength  to  "embrace  and  hold  fast" 
our  own  hope  of  everlasting  life, — prayers  of  a  more 
generous  and  sympathetic  scope  would  soon  add 
themselves,  turning  into  a  strong  cry  for  the  speedy 
conversion  of  the  world  those  glorious  Messianic 
promises  which,  long  time  found  close  under  that 
Collect,  have  not  had  the  light  of  their  world-wide 
meaning  in  the  smallest  degree  reflected  in  the  Collect. 
Instead  of  being  poor  in  prayers  for  Missions,  and 
bare  of  invocations  of  the  Spirit  upon  the  various  kinds 
of  missionary  and  social  endeavour  dependent  on  Him, 
our  Prayer  Book  would  be  enriched  with  many  such, 
for  the  Advent  time  especially.  The  momentum  of 
the  Spirit-teaching  and  the  new  inward  life  in  Him, 
felt  in  the  Advent  services,  would  at  length  begin, 
at  least,  to  transform  "Christmas"  into  a  veritable 
new  nativity  of  our  blessed  Lord  and  Saviour  in  His 
people's  hearts.  "The  bells  of  the  horses"  in  the 
snowy  streets  would,  like  the  bells  in  the  church 
towers,  chime  not  merely  "Holiness  unto  the  Lord," 


334         THE  TRINITY  SEASON — (CONTINUED) 

but  renewed  consecration  to  the  all-essential  work 
of  spreading  His  kingdom;  since  for  this  He  died  and 
rose,  and  His  Spirit  came;  and  for  this  especially  were 
we  ourselves  born  into  the  world.  Epiphany  also, 
and  Lent  itself,  would  "sense"  the  mighty  thrust  of 
the  greatest  practical  truth  of  Christianity,  that  long 
"strangely  neglected"  truth  and  power,  of  which  the 
latter  half  of  Christ's  Year  is  to  remind  us. 


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